☼ Summer Picnic with Jaffareadstoo ~ R C Bridgestock

☼ Jaffareadstoo is delighted to welcome you all to our Summer Picnic ☼

 Summertime is here

 

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☼ I'm delighted to welcome author duo R C Bridgestock to our Summer picnic ☼

Hello Jo, thanks for inviting us on the summer picnic!

☼ Bob and Carol, welcome to Jaffareadstoo. What favourite foods are you bringing to our summer picnic?

We’d be bringing a selection of crustless sandwiches - cucumber sandwiches served chilled, always remind me of waiting for the cricket team to finally figure out what their bats are for!

Then there’s the snacks…

Sausage Rolls

Scotch eggs

Carrot sticks

Watermelon & feta salad

String cheese

Grapes

Peaches, pears and strawberry shortbread

Scones, jam & Cream

Cookies

☼Would you like chilled wine, a flute of Prosecco, a number of Pimms, or a tall glass of sparkling elderflower cordial?

Definitely a flute of Prosecco for us both, please!

☼Where shall we sit, by the pool, in the garden, in the countryside, at the seaside?

Anywhere in the shade… I’m a wuss when it comes to heat, although Bob loves it, so wherever we sit we compromise - I sit in the shade, he in the sun!

As far as the perfect spot for our picnic goes… We were spoilt living on the Isle of Wight. Five minutes walk from our home in Lake, and we were on the beach.

However, our ideal picnic spot remained next to the swimming pool, sitting under a tree, on the lawn.

☼Do we have a wicker hamper, tablecloth and cutlery, or is everything in a supermarket carrier bag?

Cooler bag, so that the food is kept cool.

Although, I do love the romantic idea of a wicker picnic hamper with the tablecloth, cutlery and all the trimmings…

☼Do you have a favourite place to have a summer picnic?

Osborne House, the former royal residence in East Cowes, Isle of Wight. There are plenty of areas to picnic in the gardens or the beach. It’s easy to imagine Queen Victoria, Albert and the children doing the same in years gone by as very little has changed.

☼Which one of your literary heroes are joining us on the picnic today?

Probably not what you’d expect for a summer read, but I’ve selected Folklore Yorkshire by Kai Roberts, a Calderdale author who spent his childhood immersed in the curious traditions. The important characteristic of storytelling in ancient times was the creation of community, facilitated through the telling of a myth, folklore or legend, and as such folklore absolutely fascinates me. Who doesn’t want to hear about secret tunnels and buried treasure, and of good overcoming evil? :)

☼What is your earliest summer memory?

Mum and Dad never had a car. Our family, Mum, Dad and my younger brother Stephen travelled to the East coast on holiday with Grandma & Grandad in their blue Morris Minor, named Bertha. Bertha struggled to get up the long and windy steep Garrowby Hill - not surprising since she was carrying four adults and two children. At the top, the summit of Bishop Wilton Wold, which is the highest point of the Yorkshire Wolds, there is the figure of Jesus on the cross. My earliest summer memory is of Bertha climbing Garrowby Hill, with us all leaning forward in our seats praying that she would make it - as if leaning forward in our seats would make a difference! At the top Grandad Sid would cross himself, look up to the sky, and thank the Lord!

Once grandad had to seal a leak in the radiator with an egg - goodness knows where we got the egg from. I can only assume we took our supplies to the caravan too! Another time mum had to take off her stocking to use as Bertha’s fan belt!

Today when we travel to Bridlington along the same route with our grandchildren we all shout, ‘Come on Bertha!’

Bob’s earliest summer memory is sat on a steam train waiting for Dad (Joe) to board. After the war Joe worked on the railways, and had the knack of jumping aboard just as the train set off, which always made toddler Bob super nervous that Dad was going to get left behind!

That, and the one large, old trunk that held the entire family of five’s clothes!

☼Do you have a favourite summer hideaway?

We like to treat ourselves to a summer staycation at Ettington Park luxury hotel, near Stratford-Upon-Avon. If you haven’t been to this beautiful hotel, then we can wholeheartedly recommend. The indulgent authentic picnic hampers in the grounds are to die for!

Author's own photo

☼Do you have a summer playlist for reading/writing? And if so will you share with us a favourite song or piece of music that makes you feel summer?

When I’m writing I like classical music. One of my favourite pieces that always reminds me of summer is Serenade by Schubert.

My favourite whilst driving is the Beach Boys - Surfin USA!

☼Do you find your reading tastes differ between winter and summer?

Mmm… Interesting question. No, I don’t think so. I prefer fact to fiction, but I love anything that includes folklore… Hence, indulging myself in the writing of our new DI Charley Mann series. :)

☼Would you like to tell us a little about your latest novel, or your current work in progress?

The second in our DI Charley Mann series, Condemned, was released in April 2021, and the third, Persecution, is to be released in July 2021 - the paperback format is out in September. We are both writing, but we have also got lots more going on…

Over the last three years we have been working with scriptwriter Gaby Chiappe as her crime storyline consultants on the first Britbox drama original The Beast Must Die, which is now showing. This an adaptation of Cecil-Day Lewis novel of the same name. Gaby is a British screenwriter, known for her original works: television show The Level, and the films Their Finest and Misbehaviour. Prior to developing these, she worked extensively in commissioned British television, receiving praise and accolades for some of her stories.

Today we continue to work with her on another project which we are unable to talk about at the moment. But, it’s very exciting!

We are also thrilled to be able to share that Bridgestock - The Yorkshire Detective has been optioned by two of the most respected award winning television producers in the UK, USA and internationally, to help us bring gripping true-crime docu/dramas, focusing on the most dramatic cases Yorkshire has ever seen, to TV. Narrated by Bob, these will include some of the highest profile investigations that he worked on, and took charge of, in his thirty year, CID led police career in West Yorkshire.

Like they say - watch this space!

Carol & Bob where can we follow you on social media?


Website www.rcbridgdestock.com

Twitter @RCBridgestock

Facebook - RC Bridgestock

Linkedin - Bob Bridgestock

Instagram - rcbridgestockauthor



More about R.C Bridgestock

RC Bridgestock is the name that husband and wife co-authors Robert (Bob) and Carol Bridgestock write under. Between them they have nearly 50 years of police experience, offering an authentic edge to their stories.

Agent: David H Headley

Former Head of CID Bob Bridgestock is now an international best selling author, along with his wife Carol who also worked for WYP as a civilian employee. The couple, who write under the pen name of R. C. Bridgestock, were voted WHS Readers #8 Best Crime Authors of All Time.

The writing duo created the character DI Jack Dylan, a detective from Harrowfield; presently there are nine books in the Dylan series and 2020 saw the launch of a new series starring a feisty, Yorkshire female Detective Inspector, Charley Mann.

The couple are the storyline consultants/police procedural on BAFTA winning BBC1 police drama Happy Valley, as well as other police dramas.

Presently Carol & Bob are working on a Nicholas Blake book adaptation with scriptwriter Gaby Chiappe -The Beast Must Die.

The couple are also Directors, and Co-Founders of Walking The Line Ltd. Presently they are working on Forbidden Love, a docu/drama optioned by Chief & Hell Fire.

Bob and Carol thanks so much for sharing your picnic with us today

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#SummerPicnicWithJaffareadstoo

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📖 Blog Tour ~ Payback by R C Bridgestock

📖 Thrilled to be part of the Blog Tour for this exciting new crime series 📖 

The Dome Press
January 2020
DI Charley Mann #1

My thanks to the author and publisher for my copy of this book and the invitation to be part of the blog tour

Charley Mann left Yorkshire for the Met and a fast-track career - but now she’s back, she’s in charge and the area’s first young, female DI. 

Her hometown, the Yorkshire countryside, and her old friends all seem unchanged but appearances can be deceptive. 

When a brutal murder is discovered, Charley is forced to question everything, and the interest of her ex - reporter Danny Ray - doesn’t make it easier.

📖 What did I think about it..

I tend to pick up a new crime series with something akin to trepidation as I have such high hopes and hate being let down. However, I knew, with absolute certainty, that anything new from this talented husband and wife duo was never going to let me down and, true enough, Payback is every bit as exciting as I expected.

Having spent four years away in the Met, Charley Mann has recently been promoted to Detective Inspector and is invited to head up an investigative team back in her home town of Huddersfield in West Yorkshire. However, Charley's appointment as the first young female DI is not without its difficulties and she has much to prove to those who would see her fail at her first murder investigation. So when she is thrown in at the deep end with a complex case, on her very first day,  Charley soon realises that being back home, with all of its associated memories, is never going to be straightforward.

Charley is a great protagonist, she'e feisty, tough as her proverbial wellington boots, and yet she also has both a dark edge and a vulnerable side which I found intriguing. That she doesn't suffer fools is eloquently shown in the way that she immediately sets to knocking her team into shape and I especially enjoyed the banter between the detectives as they go about piecing together the clues of this complex police procedural. The pace is fast and furious and there's plenty of action to keep the tension cranked up to high so that it soon becomes a real page turner of a crime investigation.

It must be said that this writing duo have all the necessary credentials to bring a modern day police department to life. They speak from their respective experiences as both a serving police officer and a police civilian supervisor so there is never a moment when the authenticity dips or becomes less than absolutely believable. I love how they introduce their characters with such realism as people with faults and failings, especially Charley, who has, it appears, so many secrets in her past that discovering them as the series progresses is going to be absolutely fascinating.

Payback is a dark and gritty start to what, I am sure, will be a tense and dramatic series. I'm already looking forward to seeing where the authors are going to go next with DI Charley Mann.

Recommended : Absolutely, if you enjoy gritty police procedurals with a feisty female lead detective  ✔

About the Author

Bob was a highly commended career detective of 30 years, retiring at the rank of Detective Superintendent. During his last three years, he took charge of 26 murders, 23 major incidents, over 50 suspicious deaths and numerous sexual assaults. He was also a trained hostage negotiator with suicide interventions, kidnap, terrorism and extortion. Bob was seconded to a protracted enquiry investigating alleged police corruption in another force. He worked on the Yorkshire Ripper and Sarah Harper murder, and received praise from Crown Court Judges and Chief Constables alike for outstanding work at all ranks, including winning the much-coveted Dennis Hoban Trophy. 

As a police civilian supervisor, Carol also received a Chief Constable’s commendation for outstanding work. 

The couple are the storyline consultants / police procedural on BAFTA-winning BBC1 police drama Happy Valley and series 3 of ITV’s Scott and Bailey, and are presently working with Scott Free Production scriptwriters on two commissioned TV drama series. 

The couple pride themselves on being up-to-date on past and present day UK police procedures, and as a result, Bob is regularly sought by UK television, radio and national and local newspapers for comment on developing major crime incidents etc. They have also taken part in BBC Radio 4 (Steve) PUNT P.I. 

Carol and Bob are also patrons and ambassadors for several charities.

Website

Twitter @RCBridgestock #Payback

@TheDomePress

Blog Tour ~ Poetic Justice by R C Bridgestock

Jaffareadstoo is delighted to host today's stop on the Poetic Justice Blog Tour

The Dome Press
28 February

My thanks to the authors and publishers for my copy of this book and the invitation to be part of the blog tour.

When Detective Jack Dylan heads home to his wife after a residential course, he has no idea that an extraordinary succession of events is about to turn his life upside down.

A vicious, unprovoked personal attack is just the start. The discovery of his wife’s death in a road accident also reveals her affair, and his step-daughter is being expelled from university for drug use. Professionally, two teenagers have gone missing and one is soon found dead.

An ordinary man might break under the strain, but Dylan is no ordinary man. He knows that his survival depends on him carrying-on regardless, burying himself in his work, relieved by the distraction of newcomer to the admin department, Jennifer Jones.

His determination to pursue the criminal elements behind the events – both personal and professional – is to be his salvation, and his relationship with Jen, his ‘Guardian Angel’, will turn out to be the mainstay of his future, both within the Force and at home.

Life may have changed, but nothing will stand in the way of Dylan’s determination to seek justice

On today's Blog Tour stop I'm delighted to be able to share

 this tantalising excerpt from Poetic justice

Frank Bland’s hand trembled as he fumbled for the phone. The receiver felt too heavy as he lifted it. His heart was pounding in his chest; his shoulders heaved with the effort of running; his legs felt like jelly. When he breathed in, the cold air froze his throat and lungs. Leaning heavily against the door, Frank dialled 999 and, while he waited for someone to answer, he closed his eyes and left a prayer on God’s answering machine. An angel in the mortal guise of a BT operator answered.

‘Emergency, which service please?’

Shock, it appeared, had rendered him dumb. The controller sought to get him to speak, listening all the while for background noises, ruling out a kid’s prank. Frank licked his lips; his tongue felt like sandpaper. 

‘Can you tell me your name? Where are you ringing from?’

When the line remained soundless the operator persisted. ‘Can you cough or make another audible sign to let me know that you are in need of assistance?’

He could see his breath spiral upwards out of his mouth. He tried, and tried again, but he couldn’t make a noise. A rush of adrenalin caused a burning sensation to run through his veins and, as his panic loomed larger, he could feel the perspiration run the length of his spine. 

The operator persisted. ‘Dial 55 if you are in danger.’

Fleetingly, Frank looked at his right hand, the skin pale grey in the moonlight that shone through the window of the call box. He was shaking, and not from the cold; sweat stuck his shirt to his back. He extended his quivering fingers and, as quickly as they’d allow, dialled 55.

The call was immediately transferred to the police operator. His voice was deep, calm and soothing, but at the same time authoritative, just what Frank needed at that moment. He felt the blood rush back to his brain and control come sliding in. 

‘If you’re in danger please dial a number,’ said the police operator.

Frank forced his voice out through his lips. His throat felt so constricted, he marvelled that he could breathe. His words came out in a rush, as if they’d been suppressed in a bubble. 

‘There’s been an accident. The car in front of me, it went off the road and vanished down the ravine.’

His frantic, breathless words, as the only witness on the road at the time heading in the same direction towards Harrowfield Town, were recorded.

When the police operator ended the call, Frank slammed the receiver down and, backing away, pushed the heavy red door open and went out into the darkness. As advised, he returned to the scene. 

He followed the reflective road studs that lined the sweeping highway, which weaved and stretched for miles ahead across the Pennines. The sky was clear and the moonlight softened the darkness. The mild, dry conditions were a complete contrast to the previous weekend, when winter had arrived overnight, as it often did in the north of England. It seemed too calm for what he had seen to be real.

Hands in his pockets, and still trembling from shock, he watched the hazard lights on his car flashing rhythmically. With only a little light from the sky, he stood on the grass verge, still struggling to believe what he had seen, and peered down into the blackness of the ravine. All was quiet and still. His heart was beating painfully fast in his chest, after the exertion of the uphill hike. He struggled to catch the tight, hard breaths inside him and forced them out slowly instead, to make himself calm down. 

He looked about him. The lights of the M62 were behind him, but neither they nor the reflective road studs were any use in his attempt to follow the numerous sheep tracks that led down into the abyss. If only he were younger and fitter, he’d have been down like a flash. He looked up to see a swirling shape appear, shimmering like the folds of a curtain in the sky, stirred by the wind in an eerie silence. But this was no divine intervention come to help those in the crash; it was smoke rising from the vehicle - a sign, he feared, of worse to come. 

Frank looked from left to right, unsure from which way the emergency services would come, straining to hear the sirens approaching, hoping and willing another vehicle to come along to bring him support on the isolated stretch of moorland road. He felt useless, he felt vulnerable, he felt extremely scared.

In the stillness, and with little else he could do, he berated himself for not listening to his daughter, who had begged him, on the death of his wife, to get a mobile phone. ‘What if the telephone box had been vandalised?’ he could hear her say. He shuddered to think what he would have done then.

My thoughts about POETIC JUSTICE..

It’s been a long time since I read a police procedural novel in one sitting but Poetic Justice has been such a great introduction into DI Jack Dylan’s world that I had difficulty leaving it for any longer than it took to make myself a restorative cup of tea, in my #Team Dylan Mug.

 

For those who have already read the series, this prequel into how Jack Dylan’s literary life began will be a lovely bonus as I am sure regular readers will already be acquainted with what makes this enigmatic Detective Inspector tick. However, for those readers, like me, who are completely new, this is a grand introduction to a series, which is, with the publication of Poetic Justice, already nine books in. I really can’t wait to get my hands on them all!

The story opens with a dreadful accident, the bleakness of the scene, and the only witness account as he telephones for help is quite chilling, bringing the cold air of a winter night sharply into focus. The results of this accident will have far reaching consequences, not just for the police team leading a complicated investigation, but also for Jack Dylan who is intimately involved with one of the accident victims.

Poetic Justice is not all about Jack Dylan, and even though he does play a major role in events there is a limit to just how much sadness one man can cope with, and Jack Dylan certainly has his share of heartache. So it was refreshing for the investigative team to have other cases to work on, and one involving a local children's home and two missing children adds an interesting complexity to an already complicated story line. As I would expect from two writers who have spent most of their time working within a major police force, the police procedural aspect is particularly well done. What comes across is the banter between colleagues, which is often jokey and irreverent but always clever and precise, showing just how the police service, when under pressure, allow the professional to take over from the personal.

I absolutely loved this story from start to finish and, I think, what struck me most as I read along was just how visual the story was, because even as the words were being processed in my brain, I already had a clear visual image of events, rather like I was watching a TV drama unfold.

Having read Poetic Justice, I have to say that Jack Dylan is now my new hero, and as the writers so cleverly maintain, “If you had to choose to be on anyone’s team, you’d want to be on Team Dylan any day of the week”....I couldn’t agree more!

About the Author

RC Bridgestock is the pen name of writing duo Carol and Bob Bridgestock. Between them they have nearly 50 years of high level experience in West Yorkshire Police. The couple are story-line consultants on Happy Valley and Scott and Bailey and appear regularly on TV, radio and in the press.

Website 

Twitter @RCBridgestock #TeamDylan

@DomePress

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