It's bad enough that Gug the Barnacle Man is cruising the coast, catching lost kids with his moonlight fingers. But when dead Uncle Buddy appears from a stain in the wallpaper and takes Jim back to World War 2, that’s worse.
Crazy Joe Materson is digging for a German bomb. And Dad wants to blow up the sand-stealing excavator.
Then Old Beardy gets involved.
Excerpt
I found myself in a long line of men. We were waiting to cross a white tape that had been laid on the ground. Most of us were sitting, but some lay there.
I went to check my watch and realised I wasn’t wearing one, so I whispered to the guy on the right: “What time is it?”
“Almost time!”
This wasn’t what I really wanted to know.
The same guy whispered, “Is there anywhere else you’d like to be?”
“Me? Back in my bed listening to the night birds.”
“In ‘is pit listening to night birds!” The soldier said it loudly enough so a couple of others laughed.
From behind me a gruff voice said in a low voice, “Shut yer trap and ready fer the off!”
The moon came from behind a cloud and lit up the scene quite brightly. It looked like the surface of the moon. Bare rock, rubble, gravel.
Somewhere behind us whistles blew. My legs took charge before I even thought of it, and as one, we all stepped across the tape and began walking.
A flare went up. It hung in the sky, swaying on its parachute, throwing dancing shadows. Then it reached the ground and went out.
We carried on. The men on either side held their rifles ready. I did too. We had bayonets fixed, ready for use. When I noticed that, a wave of nervous energy went through me. The moon seemed so bright that surely the enemy must spot us.
A delightfully rare Historical Novel. 85% a biography of a spy, musician, mother and her neice trapped behind German lines in World War I. This background led to a diplomatic post in World War II. Aged 92, Vera disclosed her past life one year before
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