A FORMER Gazette deputy editor has achieved another milestone in his writing career by getting his first novel published.
Ken Dykes has published a tale of growing up in Basingstoke after the Second World War as a digital e-book.
Mr Dykes, who reached 77 this week, joined The Gazette as a junior reporter aged 22 in 1959. He progressed to deputy editor before switching to the Andover Advertiser in 1983 as editor until his retirement in 1996.
His new book, titled Country Capers, is an autobiographical account of growing up in the rural north Hampshire during the late 1940s and early 1950s.
The story centres around a family who were forced to move from their town house in Church Square after it was demolished in a Second World War bombing raid.
The book features the ‘country capers’ that Ken and his friends would get up to during his childhood in countryside around Old Basing.
“In those dark days of the 1940s and early 1950s, when just about everything was rationed, we seemed to be hungry most of the time,” said Ken, a married grandfather-of-three.
“Many of our activities were merely schemes to improve our calorie intake. Today, a good few of them would be severely frowned upon. The rest are downright illegal.”
Country Capers is published by Mr Dykes, and is available as an e-book through Amazon. It can be downloaded on to a Kindle or iPad.
He said the decision to self-publish was because of the wall of silence he met when pitching to publishers.
Mr Dykes, from Andover, said: “I believed I had an interesting story to tell but got fed up with getting no reply from publishers and pro-forma rejections from literary agents who didn’t even want to read my manuscript.”
Since its publication a few weeks ago, the book has received good feedback on Amazon with reviewers giving it five stars out of a possible five.
Reviewer Laurie Jacobs said: “An absolutely wonderful read with tales from a boy’s childhood, growing up in the war and post-war years, in rural Hampshire. The book is extremely well written with many humorous adventures that make the book hard to put down.”
Mr Dykes added that he has plans for more books, including a sequel to Country Capers about his time at The Gazette.
He said: “The sequel will be coming. I have lots of stories to tell about being a journalist in Basingstoke – some of which will make your hair curl.”
