Who was Constantine Cavafy?

Constantine P. Cavafy - Greek national Poet.

Constantine P. Cavafy was a Greek poet who lived in Alexandria and worked as a journalist and civil servant. He published 154 poems; dozens more remained incomplete or in sketch form. Wikipedia

Born: April 29, 1863, Alexandria, Egypt

Died: April 29, 1933, Alexandria, Egypt

Parents: Haricleia Cavafy, Peter John Cavafy

Nominations: Lambda Literary Award for Gay Men's Poetry

He was also a British subject and lived for a while with his family in Liverpool.

Arms Dealing and Money Laundering in good Mystery Crime Fiction

The author Patrick Brigham has recently written two good mystery books, including Herodotus – The Gnome of Sofia, and Judas Goat – The Kennet Narrow Boat Mystery.

Set once more at the end of the Cold War and Communism, his most recent book features the jazz loving, classic car enthusiast and fictional police murder detective, Chief Inspector Michael Lambert. Faced with political intrigue and in order to solve cases which often involve Eastern Europe, he genuinely needs to understand how an old Communist thinks, during the course of his investigations.

There are few good books on the subject of international crime, especially mystery stories which delve into the shady side of politics.  There are also few mystery novelists, who are prepared to address the thorny political issues of arms dealing and money laundering in their mystery crime fiction.

As a recently seconded officer to Europol - the new federal European police force –Police Detective C.I. Michael Lambert will bring a refreshingly new slant to good crime fiction books, as they emerge in the future from the pen of the author Patrick Brigham.

Patrick Brigham Mystery Author

Patrick Brigham Mystery Author - new website

www.patrickbrigham.co.uk

Old Havana by Jack Bottleneck

Written by Patrick Brigham & Robert Jelmer de Groot

In The News: Dr. Barbara Becker Holstein Interviews Marketing Strategist Don McCauley For 'Authors And Technology' Site

In The News: Dr. Barbara Becker Holstein Interviews Marketing Strategist Don McCauley For 'Authors And Technology' Site

Does author Patrick Brigham write good murder mystery books?

The author Patrick Brigham writes good mystery books, many of which are set at the very end of the Cold War and Communism. Featuring fictional police detective Chief Inspector Michael Lambert, he is often faced with political intrigue, and in order to solve his cases - which frequently take place in Eastern Europe and the Balkans - he needs to know how an old Communist thinks, during the course of his investigations.

There are few good books on the subject of international crime, especially mystery stories which delve into the shady side of Balkan politics, neither are there many novelists who are prepared to address mystery crime fiction, like the author Patrick Brigham.

As a recently seconded officer to Europol, the new EU federal police force, Chief Inspector Michael Lambert brings a new slant to European crime fiction.

www.patrickbrigham.co.uk

Writing murder mystery's which sell.

I used to think that a good grasp on reality was enough for me to survive as a writer or doing anything else for that matter, but even an old-timer like me can see the sense in a marketing approach to writing, even if it occasionally goes against the grain. This is especially true when someone like Don McCauley from The Authors Show asks a simple question like - 'What is your book all about?' If some listener is not especially interested in finding the answer out for themselves, they may well be put off by my explanation in the short time there is to describe it. 

My stories are multilayered, with different things happening to often the same people at different times.Whatever aspect of my writing means more to me at the time when the question is actually asked, might well be the wrong one for the listener. I write murder mysteries, but that is absolutely not all, and without fitting into a narrow readers category, I don't think anyone would buy my book, and we all have to eat! Therefore, I don't think that I am a victim of consumerism, but a common pragmatist!

Patrick Leigh Fermor - his final views on the Balkans!

There is more honesty about the highs of Paddy's love life and the lows of his depressions, and there is less restraint about his prejudices said his biographer Artemis Cooper quoting Fermor's final words on the Balkans -

Turks are sadistic ruffians; Bulgar's are mean-minded crooks; the Greeks, however, are heroic and romantic rustics.

Patrick Leigh Fermor

Julie Munckton from The Book Partnership made this great video

Patrick Brigham published two novels in 2013 - This is how he has publicly expressed these two events

An author writer journalist and blogger, Patrick Brigham has published two books during the course of 2013.

His first is called Herodotus - The Gnome of Sofia, which was written in the style of P. G. Wodehouse. In it he lampoons the antics of the British Diplomatic Community in Sofia Bulgaria, after the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe in the 1990's. In this instance Patrick's greatest influence was the writing of the late, great Tom Sharpe and his book Porterhouse Blue. Sharpe's story laughs at the intellectual and social snobbery inherent at Cambridge University in his day, which was undoubtedly an incubator for the British establishment. Most diplomats are of this ilk and carry their elitism into their diplomatic careers. In his blogs Patrick happily explains to a growing number of readers, why there always has to be a murder in his books, and in a humorous way,  describes the often self serving pursuits of this group of Diplomatic Civil Servants - whose mantra is, 'If you do absolutely nothing, you do absolutely nothing wrong!' - as practically meaningless. This book ends with a murder.

Patrick Brigham's second book is called Judas Goat - The Kennet Narrow Boat Mystery, and is written in quite a different genre and is much closer to his natural style. This book begins with a murder on a quiet canal in rural England, but the repercussions quickly become international. More NCIS than Agatha Christie and more Robert Ludlum than Colin Dexter, this story could practically be described as Inspector Morse meets Jason Bourne. Robert Ludlum and John Le Carre both understood the Cold War, but Patrick Brigham was also there at the end of Communism. In Judas Goat - The Kennet Narrow Boat Mystery, he explains quite clearly that many of the old Cold War Players slipped easily into the arms business and drug trade, and - already experts in money laundering - were in the frame from day one.

In this book an innocuous dead body swiftly becomes the stuff of political intrigue and interest to both MI6 and the CIA, because as the story evolves, Detective Chief Inspector Michael Lambert discovers that it directly concerns the purchase of a squadron of MiG 29's from a country in Middle Europe, and a drug related consignment of AK 47's destined for the FARC guerrillas in Colombia. No wonder our provincial English policeman is giving this case his full attention." 

Murder mystery: Judas Goat - The Kennet narrow Boat Mystery (Ten)

I am often asked about my characters!

Most of my characters have a resemblance to people from the past, although the purely evil characters are usually my creation, or drawn from recent historical figures. Sometimes I will write about a time and a place and then change it to suite the story. Finally, it is all in the plot, otherwise my writing would become pure Pirandello - Six Characters in Search of an Author  - which is about the stage and theatrical effect, and not about the intimate relationship between an author and his reader.

How do I feel about selling myself as an author?

Selling accomplishes most things a writer would like. The greater the number of books that are read, the quicker the message gets out. In the case of Judas Goat - The Kennet Narrow Boat Mystery, it is about the proliferation of weapons in the world, the evils of arms dealing, and the huge amounts of money it can make certain disreputable players who do not care much about the death and destruction their actions cause.

What sort of readers do I think I have?

People who enjoy a good story, those who want to be entertained, but also readers who instinctively understand the wise words of the writer and philosopher C. S. Lewis which were that, "We read to know we are not alone."

Please have a look at look at my improved website and buy this book - www.PatrickBrigham.co.uk