Nov 21, 2018

In this update: Why I’m giving 125% of every pre-order in the next 24hrs to charity.

I’ve just enjoyed a trip down to London for a marvellous evening of storytelling with some highly distinguish tellers, poets and musicians – including Sef Townsend, Pippa Reid and Andy Beck, to name but a few – all organised by the inimitable fireball of enthusiasm that is Andy Copps.

Every performer worked voluntarily, as the event was in aid of Donate4Refugees – a passionately active and dedicated charity founded in response to the washed-up body of 3-year-old Alan Kurdi on a Turkish beach. He’d been fleeing Syria in 2015 when his family’s boat capsized.

I was highly honoured to be part of this event, since the refugee crisis struck quite a chord with me. Back then, I’d just discovered a folk tale that would become the subject of my 5th theatre show and 3rd children’s book combined: The Eel Catcher’s Daughter, in which the Viking King Canute (more famous for his encounter with the waves...) befriends an English family and protects them from some villainous monks.

Canute crosses numerous boundaries at once in this tale – gender, age, culture, class – and, given that he was the first king to officially refer to his kingdom as England, it’s only a small step to the theory that Canute, as king, liked bringing people together. His laws enshrine this: he issued the country’s first ever decree of racial equality and inclusion in 1020.

And then, almost 1,000 years later, we had a referendum which prompted a few British parents from my county to give some notes to their children, and send them to school with express instructions to stick them into the backpacks of their Polish classmates. The notes read "Now go home."

This made national headlines. Regardless of your views on the referendum outcome, you have to admit this is a sickening abuse of children – and somewhat hypocritical, given the fact that Britain, being an island, was formed by immigrants and refugees. Even more hypocritical once you have the knowledge that Canute founded the kingdom of England on the principles of inclusion, equality and togetherness.

As I considered this for tonight’s storytelling, I realised that my belief in our welcoming nation had been part of my creative journey for a long time. Oral storytelling itself is an art which thrives on sharing – we pass folk tales down the generations, and require our listeners to create the tales afresh in their minds every time they’re told. What can be more inclusive, equal and together than that?

But even before I was a storyteller... Back when I was in my mid-teens, harbouring dreams of becoming a novelist, I watched the chaos unfolding from 9/11 and I thought... Is this really the world we, as a species, want to live in? Surely we should concentrate on what brings us together?

One thought led to another. I realised, of course, that we were brought together by terror and rage. But even in the wake of 9/11 there were tales of people coming together out of compassion and courage too.

From these ideas, Ripe For Execution was born. It would be another 5 years before it had a decent enough plot, and another 10 years before it had a first draft manuscript. But now it’s here, ready to share its message with the world. As explosively as possible.

You are helping to make this happen, of course, by pre-ordering and sharing in this Inkshares’ competition. But I want to give something back for the inspiration that’s got me this far. And that’s why I told the founder of Donate4Refugees that I’d give her charity 125% of the value from every pre-order of this ebook within the next 24hrs.

125% of $10 works out as around £10 in British money – so that’s what I’ll be donating for every ebook pre-ordered between now and midnight end of 22nd November. (I’ve pleased to have already had to give the first £10.)

The reason for the deadline was to give the audience at the event a chance to go home and get on their computers. But, sitting here on the train back, I thought I’d like to extend it out to everyone.

So please share this news with your friends, family and colleagues too: if they pre-order before midnight at the end of Thursday 22nd November, they won’t just be helping a kid achieve his dream of publishing an exciting yet thought-provoking crime novel – they’ll be giving an enhanced donation in the ongoing battle to protect families fleeing the biggest crises of the modern world.

I’ll update you with a picture of my donation after I’ve checked the total on Friday.

Cheers folks! The link to support is www.bit.ly/ripeforexecution

All the best to you all.