The Cryptian 2022-2023

Budding bestsellers – Paul James and Matt Cass

One of the things I decided I would do when I stood down as a councillor was to write up the story of Gloucester’s regeneration over the last 25 to 30 years. I wanted to do that so it is there for the record, so those in charge now and in the future can learn from what we got right and what didn’t go so well – and because, in my view, with all the twists and turns and the characters involved it’s actually quite a compelling story.

The Covid lockdown gave me an opportunity to start on it a bit earlier than I’d planned. Lots of people, it seems, used lockdown to write books. 200,000 a year are now published in the UK and Amazon lists nearly 33 million books from around the world – so it’s a crowded market! Online self-publishing platforms make getting a book into print easier and less risky than it was previously. Three years on, I’m still working on it – although I am now very close to the finishing line. I knew it would take some time, but I hadn’t fully appreciated how long it would need to put all of the jigsaw pieces together. A lot of it I was involved with directly, but there’s also plenty where I was either on the fringes or that pre-dated my time as Leader or Cabinet Member for Regeneration, so I’ve researched online, at Gloucestershire’s Heritage Hub and by interviewing well over 100 people.

One thing leads to another. When I was having a pint with my good friend and Crypt School contemporary Matt Cass and told him about what I was doing, he said he’d like to write a book too. I told him he had the contents for one already written – his daily tonguein-cheek Facebook ‘Lockdown Diary’ posts, based on a ‘Zombie Apocalypse’, which had amused his friends and followers and helped to bring some light relief to a trying time. Matt quickly turned this into a book, which is available on Amazon and has sold around the world. Well, some of his friends who live abroad have bought a copy! Matt donated the proceeds from his book, and a bit more on top, to NHS Charities.

Matt had another idea. It was inspired by the story of the Battle of Imjin River in the Korean War and the role the Gloucestershire Regiment played in holding back the Chinese advance. There is a $5 million memorial to the Glosters in South Korea, near to where the battle took place. In May 2014, the memorial was unveiled by the then Mayor of Gloucester, Old Cryptian Chris Chatterton, and his Korean counterpart. It caused Matt to reflect on the impact Gloucester has had around the world and the interesting facts and stories about the city that most people who live here just don’t know. Another link between The Crypt and the Korean War is that I remember during my time at the school when General Sir Anthony Farrar-Hockley was Guest of Honour at Speech Day. Farrar-Hockley provided inspiring leadership during the Battle of Imjin River, spent two years as a prisoner of war and was mentioned in dispatches. At the time, I hadn’t really appreciated who he was, but I now realise he was a real hero.

I’m no historian (I haven’t even got GCSE History), but as Leader of Gloucester City Council for over 12 years and a councillor for 24, I was exposed to more information about the city than most. Matt’s idea was for a book about 100 of the most interesting bits of information about the city that we could come up with. It didn’t take long to think of 100 and the challenge was what to leave out! We settled on calling it ‘100 Facts, Myths and Legends About Gloucester’. We managed to get it done in around three months and it is now available on Amazon and for sale at Gloucester Cathedral, the Museum of Gloucester,

The Folk of Gloucester, The Soldiers of Gloucestershire Museum, The House of the Tailor of Gloucester and Discover DeCrypt.

Without wishing to give too much away, it does contain a fair few Crypt School references – from the perhaps obvious ones of Henley and Whitefield to Sir Robin Day and a more recent link with the children’s programme, ‘Paw Patrol’.

At the time of writing, Matt and I have published a Cotswolds edition of the same format. It took a bit more research, but was helped by the fact I now work for Cotswold District Council, heading up their Economic Development function. Crypt School links were a bit harder to find for this one!

I still haven’t finished my book about the city’s regeneration, but that will definitely mention some Old Cryptians, like my former councillor colleagues Andrew Gravells, Martyn White and the late Colin Organ, the now retired Head of Leisure Steve Elway, ex-Marketing Gloucester Chief Executive Jason Smith, quantity surveyor Steve Tandy and architects Jeff Roberts and Stephen Limbrick.

People in the business tell me that, unless you’re Jeffrey Archer, J K Rowling or Prince Harry, you shouldn’t expect to make much money from writing a book. But there is a real sense of achievement in seeing your own words in print and on the shelves in local shops. I’ll be pleased when the marathon of writing my book on the regeneration of the city is over. I’ve still got a few ideas in the bank for what might come next, but I don’t think I’ll embark on a subject that needs quite so much research again any time soon!

Paul James.

Here is a link to the Amazon page for ‘100 Facts, Myths and Legends About Gloucester’: https://amzn.eu/d/3vpS5cl, ‘100 Facts, Myths and Legends About the Cotswolds’ https://amzn.eu/d/foKVTeV and for ‘Zombie Apocalypse – A Covid 19 Lockdown Diary’: https://amzn.eu/d/6hsck2K