#BlogTour Merlin At War by Mark Ellis Guest Post @MarkEllis15 @midaspr

I am so happy to be kicking off the blog tour for Mark Ellis’ new book, Merlin At War with a fantastic guest post from the man himself …

Over to you Mark …

How my parents inspired my books

I write detective thrillers set in World War 2 London. The books feature Scotland Yard detective Frank Merlin. I have always been fascinated by the war and in particular by life on the Home Front during the war years.

My parents were the people most responsible for generating this interest. My father spent much of the war as a British Navy sailor in Africa and told me riveting tales of his experiences. Sadly he died, when I was still a boy, from the wasting lung disease he contracted on that wartime service.  My mother, who long outlived him, was fifteen at the outbreak of hostilities and lived with her family at the top of a hill in Llanelli in South Wales.

The nearby town of Swansea, a major port and industrial centre, was battered by the Luftwaffe on many nights between 1940 and 1943 and my mother would tell how the family would gather in their back garden and watch in horror as the bombs rained down and Swansea burned. She also had great stories of weekend trips up to London after she started working.

As an employee of the Great Western Railway, she had the perk of free railway passes and would regularly travel up to the capital with friends to see the sights and dance the night away, oblivious to the doodlebugs and other dangers of the wartime city.

My mother’s stories brought home to me how, while the nation was involved in an epic struggle against Hitler, ordinary life went on in all its variety. One important part of ordinary life which continued was crime which grew substantially during the war and as a background for a crime writer the period is particularly rich in potential. I’m glad my parents’ stories led me to it.

Gosh! What a wonderful family history to draw on! Thank you so much for sharing this with us Mark.

Be sure to keep up with the rest of the tour …

 

Want to see these influences in action? Here’s the blurb …

London Wall Publishing (6 July 2017)

War rages across Europe. France is under the Nazi thumb. Britain has its back to the wall. In London, Scotland Yard detective Merlin investigates a series of disturbing events – a young girl killed in a botched abortion, a French emigre shot in a seedy Notting Hill flat, a mysterious letter written by a British officer, gunned down in Crete. With action spanning Buenos Aires, New York, Cairo and Occupied France, Merlin and his team are plunged into a dark world of espionage, murder, love and betrayal.

Sound good? Go get your copy over at Amazon

About the author …

Mark Ellis is a thriller writer from Swansea and a former barrister and entrepreneur. Mark grew up under the shadow of his parents’ experience of the second world war. His father served in the wartime navy and died a young man. His mother told him stories of watching the heavy bombardment of Swansea from the safe vantage point of a hill in Llanelli, and of attending tea dances in wartime London under the bombs and doodlebugs. In consequence, Mark has always been fascinated by World War II and, in particular, the Home Front and the fact that while the nation was engaged in a heroic endeavour, crime flourished. Murder, robbery, theft and rape were rife. This was an intriguing, harsh and cruel world – the world of DCI Frank Merlin. Mark Ellis is also the author of Princes Gate and Stalin’s Gold, the first two titles in the DCI Frank Merlin series, and is a member of the Crime Writers’ Association. He divides his time between homes in London and Oxford.