Holidays as a child - Prestatyn and Porthmadog

Pontins Prestatyn

Obviously as a child, most people will say some of their fondest memories are when they went away on holiday. And I am no exception, and I have quite a good memory too. Up to the age of 4 we used to go to Pontins at Prestatyn in North Wales. Although the years may merge into one, I do remember the ladybird swarm, where mum simply put our raincoats and wellingtons on and sent us outside to play in essentially was a plague of biblical proportions! But that was the 1970's way of parenting, "go out and play!"

Another unusual aspect of 70's parenting was to tell ridiculous lies to your children so as to frighten you to death, like "if you're naughty a policeman will put you in prison and you'll never see anyone ever again!" Or my mum's favourite when I used to ask for my dad was, "He's run off with the Bogey man!" She told me this when we were at Pontins, so I took it upon myself to go and find dad and give the Bogey man a good telling off... Naturally I was soon lost and a kind man with his son took me to reception. I remember sitting on a chair behind a kind lady dressed as a blue coat, not feeling remotely frightened telling the staff I had to find the Bogey man because he had my dad. You can imagine my mothers face when she turned up to collect missing child from the reception and being asked why I would think the Bogey man had run off with my dad!


Red faced, my mum took me back to the chalet and should me where dad had been lying in bed all day with a stomach bug. She told me the lie to stop me disturbing him! Be warned what you lie to your kids about is all I can say. I have lots of other dodgier memories, like this puppet machine that had these hideous dancing dolls in them that fascinated and frightened me to dead all at the same time. I loved the chalets we stayed in and playing on the park. The little Noddy train that took you around the park and the yellow glass roof in the huge swimming pool. I actually thought I'd imagined some of these things until, by chance, we went there for a day visit and the swimming pool or chalets hadn't changed at all in 40 years... Hence all the photos.







Greenacres Porthmadog

From aged 5 to 12 years old we changed destinations and Dad began taking us to Greenacres caravan park in Porthmadog North Wales, which has created a life long love affair for the park, the town and the dunes on Blackrock sands. We first stayed in a caravan belonging to a friend of dad's from work, which was on what is Narcissis Way. I loved this old caravan, back then they used to have proper living rooms and bathrooms, which I think some of the newer higher grade models are reverting back to funnily enough. I remember loving Wonder woman, The Incredible Hulk and Spiderman on TV at around this time. I think I'd been watching Wonder Woman and decided I was going to create an assault course around the freestanding table and chairs in the living area using my bunk bed ladders and bedding! Naturally I fell off the ladders and busted my nose! I had a scabby nose for weeks afterwards.

I loved going to the beach at the end of the caravan park and where there are grassy dunes with rolling hills of soft, velvety sand. I loved it so much I have written a short story about the place and a supernatural series based around the area. My brother and I would play bowls, make sand castles, dig huge holes and bury each other in them, take our Labrador dog, Bonnie for a run through the dunes, which she loved. As soon as we drove into Porthmadog, she would go mad in the car, whining and panting and as soon as we opened the car door, she would run off into the sand dunes.

So our job was to look after the dog while mum and dad unpacked. We had this obsession with jelly fish too. For some reason these huge jelly fish would get washed up on the beach and me and David would get sticks to try and pick them up with. How on earth we never got stung I do not know. We would also see how far we could jump off the highest sand dunes and land in the soft sand below. No fear then, although I did go back with my brother about 9 years ago and I dared him to jump over the highest dune and he did! Bonkers!

A few years on and another of dad's friend had bought a double chalet AND a new Monaco Riviera Caravan (which was very posh for it's time (picture across). I decided dad's friend must also be very rich to have a caravan and a chalet. I loved this caravan so much and wanted to live in it permanently. It had rich, red, velour curtains with proper tie backs, (which was my job to tie back in the mornings) and a lovely wine red and beige velour seating and dining area. I thought it was so pretty. The owners also had a speed boat, which he took us all out in when he turned up at weekends. It was great fun and exciting.

During our years holidaying at Greenacres, we had a number of family members join us in the fun. Nana and Granddad came to stay in the old caravan with us for a weekend once. Then my Aunt and Uncle came with my cousin twice, once they had a touring caravan which I always wanted to play house in because it was just too cute. I even tried to persuade my dad to buy a touring caravan, but he said the nearest he got to camping was in a static caravan! We'd go to the clubhouse at night and get dressed up in my favourite dresses (no jeans and t-shirts back then) and we'd be entertained by the camps staff with party games (a bit like what they do today, but there was no Bradly Bears, Sid the Seagulls, shops with endless amounts of expensive kids light up toys etc or highly polished wanna be stars and cabaret acts). Just a glass of lemonade, a packet of salt and vinegar crisps and then dance and play until carried back to the caravan exhausted.
Although,we also sometimes went to a pub down the road that didn't charge to get in and they did fried chicken or scampi in a basket then they'd put on a disco for the kids. I remember doing "Oops up side your Head." and dancing to Come On Eileen by Dexys Midnight Runners. Whenever I hear that song, it takes me right back to that holiday.

The second time my cousin came to Porthmadog, they camped in this huge tent on another campsite close by with Gran and Granddad. It is probably one of my most memorable holidays in Porthmadog. Dad got the Brothers in Arms album by Dire Straits, Zig Zig Sputnik and Dead or Live were in the charts and it was just a special time with my grandparents on the beach. I went to my first car boot sale, which I thought was marvelous and wanted to buy everything I thought was cute, but was probably just old cheap rubbish, but I'm a magpie for all things shiny and pretty.

We used to go for lots of day trips out over the years to places like Caernarvon Castle, Harlech, Abersoch, Angelsey, Portmerion, but the two things we did every year without fail was a trip to Criccieth to see the castle, sit on the beach wall and eat fish and chips then go to Cadwaladers ice cream shop for the most amazing ice cream ever. Like everything, Cadwalderwers is a highly polished commercialised chain across Wales now, but it started out at one little shop in Criccieth. I love the place so much I based my witches coven in Didikai Witch there and when I had to return to the characters and Castle in the third book Vampire Sorceress I spent a chunk of my Christmas break there, sat in what is now Cadwaladers Cafe looking out towards the Castle for inspiration. The other trip I loved was on the steam train to Blanneau Ffestinniog. And I still love doing those things to this day, along with exploring Portmerion, which is a colourful and bonkers make believe town used to film the Prisoner in the 60's, but I still love the fantasy aspect of the place even to this day.


Finally, the daft things we buy as a kid and think they're great! I collected foreign dolls, of a fashion, so I bought a very cheap doll in Welsh dress whose eyes fell out with one shake, it had the doll with these creepy, empty holes instead of eyes for years. Then I bought this old wild west lady doll with a massive head in a blue chiffon dress. They were all the fashion at the time, I believe they are called Southern Belle Bradley Dolls, but I dented her cheek as soon as I got her back to the caravan, she went to a good home years later though. And the other thing I remember buying was this cute little gorilla that sucked a dummy... I have to confess, I still have it!

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Great Ghost Stories on Children's TV in the 80's

The one thing I loved as a child was ghost stories. The first time I heard War of the Worlds at school I went home, nicked my brother's tape recorder, locked myself in the bedroom in the dark and created my own haunted house story complete with creepy sound effects. Fast forward a couple of years and I was excited to get home from school to watch The Children of Green Knowe. 
It was a guilty secret because I was in high school at this point, but I was still a kid, right?

In a boarding school somewhere in post-war Britain, Toseland (Alec Christie) or, as he preferred to be known as Tolly receives word from his Father that he will be spending Christmas with his maternal Great Grandmother known as Mrs Oldknow (Daphne Oxenford). Tolly's festive home will be the ancient Oldknow family home of Green Knowe. Within the confines of Green Knowe, Mrs Oldknow regales Tolly with the stories of years past. Tolly plays hide-and-seek with ghostly children who perished in the Great Plague and it turns out these children are dead rellies somehow (Not sure because a whole generation seemingly was wiped out, but hey, I was 13 so I didn't ask such questions back then. 






The spooky kids were Toby (Graham McGrath), Alexander (James Trevelyan) and Linnet (Polly Maberly). It's not all fun and games, though, as the ancient tree-spirit Green Noah is intent on getting his branches on Tolly.
Again not sure why and there was something to do with St Christopher the saint of travellers walking through a stream in the dark! To be fair I do need to watch this series again and lucky for me it's on You Tube! 

Based on the Green Knowe series of books by Lucy M Boston, The Children of Green Knowe was dramatised by John Stadelman for BBC1 in 1986. 
The Children of Green Knowe is in the same vein as other BBC telefantasies The Box of Delights and The Chronicles of Narnia, so you know what to expect - well spoken children, a bit of magic, some horror and a wonderful soundtrack. 

 The BBC always do a great job with period dramas and The Children of Green Knowe is no exception. It conjures up a show which is watchable, cosy and just perfect for a quick spot of festive viewing. 

Moondial is a childrens ghost/fantasy drama made by the BBC and transmitted in 1988.The story is about a young girl, Minty (Siri Neal), who is staying with her aunt after her mother is injured in a car accident. Minty spends much of her time wandering around the grounds of a nearby mansion, and is drawn to a moondial that enables her to travel back in time, where she becomes involved with two children, Tom (Tony Sands), who lives in the Victorian era, and Sarah (Helena Avellano), who seems to live further back in time.

Jacqueline Pearce, who played Servelan in Blakes 7, plays the dual role of the vicious Miss Vole (who seems to have lived in the 18th Century) and the present-day ghost hunter Miss Raven. And she still creeps me out. She plays great characters. I also loved this series because the thought of being able to wonder around a huge mansion whilst being completely invisible to the other people (except the children) appealed to my weirdness.

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RentaGhost

“If your mansion house needs haunting just call Rentaghost,

We’ve got spooks, and ghouls, and freaks, and fools, at Rentaghost,

Hear the Phantom of the Opera, sing a haunting melody,

Remember what you see, is not a mystery, but Rentaghost.”

Rentaghost was a British children's television comedy show, broadcast by the BBC between 6 January 1976 and 6 November 1984. The show's plot centred on the antics of a number of ghosts who worked for a firm called Rentaghost, which rented out the spirits for various tasks. The company, located in South Ealing, is run by Fred Mumford, a recently deceased loser who feels he can find work for ghosts whose lives were as unsuccessful as his. 
I loved this series and even pretended my bedroom was haunted, drawing lots of ghosts like the rentaghost below and sticking them around my room. I then told a girl on my street my room was haunted and when she saw the paper ghost, she ran away screaming!!!

His first (and only) recruits are Timothy Claypole, a mischievous jester with a comical lack of knowledge about modern technology; and Hubert Davenport, a delicate Victorian-era gentleman who is morally shocked by the modern world. The ghosts work from an office, which they rent from Harold Meaker, who discovers the truth about them in the third episode. Over the course of several series, other characters were added: Hazel the McWitch, a Scottish witch; Nadia Popov, a Dutch ghost who suffers from hay fever and teleports away when she sneezes; and the pantomime horse Dobbin, and is brought to life by Claypole.

When actor Michael Darbyshire(who played the role of Davenport) died in 1979, Anthony Jackson (Mumford) declined to appear in the next series, leaving Michael Staniforth's Claypole the sole original ghost; Davenport and Mumford's absences were explained at the start of the series by the pair having gone on an extended tour of stately home hauntings. After Mumford's departure, the business was taken over by Harold Meaker and his wife Ethel, who suffered from the various problems the ghosts brought to their lives.

The long-suffering neighbours of Rentaghost are the Perkins, who appear from Series 4 onwards, and think the Meakers are mad. I do actually remember the original series and cast, even though I was very young back then. Just goes to show how fascinated I was with the supernatural even at a very young age.

Children's Sci-fi and Fantasy TV of the 1980's

Aliens in the Family TV Theme Tune

Premise - David (Rob Edwards) and Phillipa (Clare Clifford), are a newly married couple, both having children from previous relationships. David is bringing Jacqueline aka Jake (Sophie Bold) to his new home to Phillipa and her daughter Dora (Claire Wilkie) and son Lewis (Sebastian Knapp) Jake, is very tomboy like in nature is the polar opposite of Dora who's into her fashion and appearance.

Meanwhile, up in that there galactic galaxy, is a Galgonquan spaceship where - another set of siblings - Bond (Grant Thatcher) and Solita (Elizabeth Watkins) are getting all anxious about Bond's upcoming assessment. Solita needs to disguise herself on Earth as an everyday object and Bond is tasked with locating and retrieving this (all after disguising himself as a human being man). 



Doesn't sound too testing, but there's also the threat of the sinister Wirdegen to contend with who want to do nasty things to Galgonquans.

Things go wrong for everyone. Jake can't stand life at David and Phillipa's house and Bond finds himself fleeing from the Wirdegen almost as soon as he's set foot on Earth. Bond ends up with the Earth kids on a desperate quest to find Solita and get home.

Bond finds Solita in an old transistor radio and must reach the stone circle before the Wirdegens catch them. They slip through time, and it's implied that Dora and Bond are related as they both posses the same family heirloom stone. What is fantastic is that the series is now on You Tube!

You Tube Series of Aliens in the Family

I loved this series because I fancied the pants of Grant Thatcher and I had this sneaky wish to be an Alien. Think it may have something to do with being all seeing and all knowing.

The Wirdegen were a great addition and the menace portrayed by the Wirdegen leader was simultaneously fantastic and nightmare inducing. (He was also a Deatheater in Harry Potter films!

And it turned out the Wirdegen's were just Galgonquan in disguise, testing Bond. The filming location was generally in Devon, spotting the Exeter bus station, stone circles on Dartmoor and the time slip scenes at Becky Falls.

My Supernatural Fantasy Books with an Alien Twist!

Another Alien Series - that I absolutely loved was the sci-fi drama series of the 80's I remember watching was the 1984 adaptation of John Wyndham’s Chocky. This was Wyndham’s final science fiction novel published in 1968 and set slightly in the future, where as the Children's TV version was contemporary. I have watched the 3 series on YouTube (Chocky's Children and Chocky's Challenge. 

The premise of both the novel and the series is that Matthew, a 12-year-old boy, suddenly appears to have an imaginary friend named Chocky. His parents become worried about his behaviour and eventually Chocky reveals herself as this ball of glowing light. She's here on a mission to understand Earth and uses Matthew as a vessel to understand the world.

The interest of the story is that it’s a kind of science fictional twist on the demonic possession idea, but the real twist is that Chocky really appears to be rather benign. Perhaps even benevolent. Having your son possessed by an alien entity, even an apparently benevolent one, is still rather disturbing. Although as a child watching this I just thought it was great to have a secret friend who made you super clever! We all used to talk about it at school the next day.

In Chocky's Children Matthew goes on holiday and meets a mathematical prodigy Albertine (after Einstein of course) who is unaware of Chocky, but the alien tutors her and makes her uber clever. The precocious child hates Matthew's suggestion that she is clever through alien intervention until she is kidnapped by a group who want to find out Chocky's secrets. 

The third series, I don't think I watched, or only watched part of it as it wasn't that memorable... Chocky's Challenge, (I was probably too old to watch kids TV by then), but I have watched it since and think it was... not very good. Basically, they had to build something that would save the world and create cosmic energy, but if trapped inside would kill them! The series threw up more questions and most of it was spent with Chocky's Children silently talking to each other telepathically and smiling or giggling at one another because they'd figured something really intelligent out. The acting was really wooden too. Big thumbs down.

Chocky, Chocky's Children and Chocky's Challenge on YouTube

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Great Old Sci-Fi TV that Inspired My Imagination

Sapphire and Steel

This had to be one of the creepiest TV series I remember. Even back then I liked scary stories and science fiction. The programme centres on a pair of inter-dimensional operatives, Sapphire and Steel. Very little is revealed about their purposes or backgrounds in the course of the series, but they appear to be engaged in guarding the continuing flow of time. They are two of several elements that assume human form and are sent to investigate strange events; others include Lead, who takes the aspect of a jovial, friendly giant, and Silver, a technician who can melt metals in his hands, there is also Jet and Copper.


Sapphire's special powers is to manipulate time in small ways as well as determine the age or historical details of an object by touching it. Her most prominent ability is to "take back time," literally rewinding it in a localised area to see or replay the past. Steel can freeze himself to absolute zero which gives him the ability to destroy 'ghosts', which are remnants of Time. 
Theme Tune Intro


He possesses immense strength  and is telekinetic, freezing people with a look or unbolting or welding metal objects.

The scariest series I thought was assignment four where the man with no face controlled people in photographs and all the children were dressed as Victorian children, but when Sapphire touched them they turned to paper. The worst bit was the shop keeper setting fire to a photograph with a woman in the window of the building screaming. Horrible, but as a child I found fascinating and glued to the box.



Space 1999

The series is set in the year 1999. The crew on moon base Alpha are sent hurtling in Space when a nuclear waste storage unit explodes, knocking the Moon out of orbit and sending it, as well as the 311 inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha, hurtling uncontrollably into space. The runaway Moon, in effect, becomes the "spacecraft" on which the protagonists travel, searching for a new home. Not long after leaving Earth's solar system, the wandering Moon passes through a black hole and later through a couple of "space warps" which push it even further out into the universe. 

During their interstellar journey, the Alphans encounter an array of alien civilisations, dystopian societies, and mind-bending phenomena previously unseen by humanity. Several episodes of the first series hinted that the Moon's journey was influenced  by a "mysterious unknown force", which was guiding the Alphans toward an ultimate destiny.
I loved this series so much and used to pretend I was on the spaceship and was some kind of alien like Maya, with special shape shifting powers.
Theme Tune and Episode


Blakes Seven

The TV show is set in the third century and at least 700 years in the future. Blake's 7's premise concerns the exploits of political dissident Roj Blake, who commands a small group of rebels against the forces of the totalitarian Terran Federation that rules the Earth and many colonised planets. The Federation uses mass surveillance, brainwashing and drug pacification to control its citizens. 

Blake is arrested and tried on false charges then deported to a remote penal colony. En route he and fellow prisoners Jenna Stannis and Kerr Avon gain control of a technologically advanced alien spacecraft. It's central computer, Zen informs them the ship is called the Liberator. 

Theme Tune and Episode



Liberator's speed and weaponry are superior to Federation craft, and it also has a teleportation system that enables transport to the surface of planets. Blake and his crew begin a campaign to damage the Federation, but are pursued by Space Commander Travis – a Federation soldier – and Servalan, the Supreme Commander who used to seriously scare me. Secretly I fancied Avon and used to play Blake's 7 on my local park many times. 


The Tomorrow People


The premise was about the emergence of the next stage of human evolution (Homo novis) known colloquially as Tomorrow People. Born to human parents, an apparently normal child experience a process called "breaking out" during adolescence and develop special paranormal abilities. These abilities include powers such as telepathy, telekinesis, and teleportation. However, their psychological make-up prevents them from intentionally killing others.

Weirdly I don't remember much about this programme, but I do remember the Theme Tune and it still gives me goose bumps today. It also gives me a sense a nostalgia for the old house I was born and brought up in.

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Sci-Fi and Fantasy Conventions

As a fantasy supernatural writer, I attend various sci-fi and fantasy conventions at times to promote myself and my Supernatural Beyond Series of Novels . They are all very different experiences, but these conventions do share one thing in common, their fans are serious fans and they love to dress up as their favourite characters from books, graphic novels, film and TV series. Here's my favourite Sci-fi and Fantasy Conventions that I've attended in recent years.

Authors Alison Kershaw and Sam Stone meeting for the first time

BFS - British Fantasy Society - was my first introduction to Sci-Fi and Fantasy Conventions. It was held in Northampton and I was a little overwhelmed by it all at first. However, I had been in contact with Horror author Sam Stone, who was there to launch her new book and Raven Dane another lovely fantasy vampire author. I listened to other established authors on panels about script writing, which I found very interesting and gave me the idea to look into script writing courses to adapt Didikai Witch The first Novel in my my Beyond Series of Supernatural Books.

I listened to other authors reading extracts from their own latest pieces of work, which I always greatly admire. For me public speaking is hard enough, but reading your own words to an anticipating crowd is petrifying, so I had great admiration for those reading. I also listened to James Barclay's interview, which was very interesting as he described how he struggled as a writer in his early years and gave me motivation to carry on with my writing endeavours .





 I was also honoured to be invited to lunch with some of the guest authors at the event, which was the first time I'd ever been in the company with fellow published authors before, which was thrilling.

NEW CON - A Sci-fi and Fantasy Convention in Nottingham, which offered similar entertainment and
workshops as the British Fantasy Society, but at this stage I knew more writers and the same people do tend to show up at these events. So I was there on Friday night in the hotel with Sam Stone,



David Howe of Telos Publishing and Terry Martin of Murky Depths Graphic Novels when I went to the bar and began talking to a lovey gentleman who bought me a drink and started chatting about writing for the BBC, this was Paul Cornell, who had written episodes for Doctor Who and so I attended his workshop on the Saturday to learn more about how to get your foot in the door as a BBC script writer, I'm still trying, but the writer's room only open up for submissions one a year, so I persist.



This panel is of author Storm Constantine and Terry Martin. I always recommend attending these conventions and panels as an aspiring writer because you can pick up amazing snippets of valuable advice from a pro and these panels are a chance to ask them pretty much whatever you like. Saturday evening was a live band and meal and I even had the absolute honour of player pool with the late, great Ian M. Banks.




EM - Com Birmingham. The two previous Sci-Fi and Fantasy Conventions were smaller, with a family feel and were focused around books, graphic novels and their authors. This Em - Com was huge in comparison, with many stalls to weave in and out of selling books, witchcraft products, Harry Potter memorabilia, Sci-fi toys from favourite TV and films, I wondered how I could possibly stand out from the rest. As you can see I went with a Scottish theme to match the Scotland theme that runs through the Beyond Books I write, and it seemed to work selling quite a lot of my signed books.

The other differences were that this event was very firmly centre around stars of the film and TV world, all lined up in a long row down one side of the huge hall, stars like the cast from the Red Dwarf, Game of Thrones and Star Trek and Doctor Who were there and it seemed most people attended purely to get a signed photo of the stars. No-one seemed to care about the writers who made the series or film the success it was in the first place. Very different and the amount of cos-play was astonishing. Above is an ewok, but there were storm troopers, Darth Vaders, Trekky fans galore, dressed up in some amazingly realistic costumes.

Del and Darth Vadar

Em-Con was an amazing experience, I even got to meet Danny John Jules who played Cat in Red Dwarf whilst we both waited for taxi's at the back of the convention at the end of the day and I didn't even have to pay for the pleasure, but I have to say, it was just too big for my liking.








The most amazing experience of my writing career and of Sci-Fi and Fantasy Conventions was the Sci-Fi Weekender in Wales. More cosplay, but there was a much more of a balance between writers, artists, actors panels, with cosplay competitions and different areas, such as the shopping area, scifi cinema, comedians and shows out of this world. Definitely an eclectic mix to entertain just about every fantasy.




And of course, there were still those members of the public who spend a fortune, and great creative time and effort on their costumes. They walk around all day long having their photos taken with other cos-players, which I find fascinating.

My greatest experience of this weekend was to be asked to be on two panels of experts discussing Dystopian Futures and What We class as Horror.
The panel had to sit on a stage in huge auditorium usually used as the caravan parks entertainment hall. Looking out at hundreds of faces staring back at me was a truly petrifying feeling, but thankfully as I managed to answer the first question with dying of fear and the next, I gained my confidence and it actually helped to get more people to my stall of books, giving me lots of positive feedback and hopefully some new fans.

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