Hi,
May I just start off simply by saying thank-you to all those of you who have spent your hard earned money on a copy of the ‘DENISON’ book. I hope on the whole you are as happy with the book as I am and I’m pleased to announce that by Sunday morning at the War & Peace Show we had completely sold out. With dealers returning for more boxes of the book we had to mount a replenishment mission braving the extreme temperatures and driving hundreds of miles through insect infested highways and byways to satisfy demand. Perhaps a little dramatic but all the same it was true, you should have witnessed the carnage on the windscreen! The book has already broken even which is great news in such a short time frame, it was only printed limited numbers to stop the costs spiraling and hopefully the next project will be received as well as ‘DENISON’ has been.
I had always hoped that the book would be positively received not only by the collectors but perhaps by a much wider audience and this appears to be the case. Airborne Forces both past and present are of course hugely proud of their heritage; they remain instantly recognizable to this day and have a strong and somewhat protective affiliation with their beloved Denison smock from whatever era they served. The same can be said of the modern Para smock and the pride which continues to this day, and rightly so.
The main driving force behind this book especially for me was researching, tracking down and meeting WWII veterans like Les Kershaw, this was not only a huge achievement from a personal point of view but also a great honor to be able to spend time with him and listen to the stories. Veterans such as Les find it difficult to relate to or indeed understand the interest people have to this day of their personal exploits during WWII although he would have us believe he merely flew a glider across the Rhine during Operation Varsity. His involvement in this project makes it more than just a book about specialist clothing and this in itself makes this book slightly different from similar books of this nature.
Featured in this book are veterans from conflicts past and present. Many thanks to 3 Para who have gone out of their way and shown huge support for the project allowing access to equipment and also some willing ‘voluntold’ serving Airborne soldiers. Again, this is a great success for us to have been so positively received by the very soldiers/forces portrayed in this book.
‘Old Git’ is right, the book maybe “a bit clunky in places” but to be perfectly honest so am I especially in the morning! There are of course things that could well have been included, we are all individuals and as such will have varying views and knowledge with regards to what should have been or what could have been included but it is very hard to find that balance between too much information where it runs the risk of becoming dry and dare I say slightly dull. There are also time constraints that come into play with a project such as this, knowing when to say “STOP” is also very difficult because of the huge amount of subject matter.
I am not a great reader myself and become very easily distracted and as such a book nust be visually stimulating in order to hold my interest. I believe this has been achieved in general and I hope to a degree we have that balance somewhere in the middle with enough information without completely bogging you down.
‘Old Git’, I also find myself going back over a few lines mainly due to being dyclistec…..sorry dyslectic, good old spell check! I’m only joking of course, I welcome the critiques and I hope you accept that I really am simply an ‘interested amateur’ and by no means a professional historian/writer. An idea born from a collection, and that fascination with the iconic Denison smock. A strange passion for a Submariner but believe me there isn’t anything interesting enough to collect relating to submariners clothing and most of mine fell apart whilst it was still on me!
All my proceeds from this project were donated and presented to Airborne Assault who distributed it to an Airborne charity of their choice, this belongs to them not me. I didn’t earn the right to wear this iconic smock, I earned the right to wear my HM SUBMARINES cap tally and my Dolphins but its not quite as glamorous!
Brgds
Bruce ‘Tug’ Wilson
