#BlogTour -‘Jake’s Progress’ by David Simmonds

About The Book….

It’s 1968: Jake Nash, fresh out of university, is leaving his London home, and a rapidly cooling love affair with the beautiful Amanda, to start his career as a journalist with a newspaper in the South Wales valleys. But his dreams of glory as an ace reporter are bedevilled by encounters with two inept freedom fighters, a sinister Minister with murder in mind and the very obvious attractions of a beautiful colleague.
A darkly comic tale of romance, revenge and reporting that comes to an explosive climax.

Welcome to another Random Things BlogTour highlighting a really interesting book, ‘Jake’s Progress’ by David Simmonds, and published by  Bethannie Books.

I was a little trepidatious reading this book, as a Welsh person born and bred, the depiction of us in books tends to lean towards broadly created caricatures, bordering on simpletons.

However,this was  not the case in this tale of a London based journalist returning to his-sort of-roots to work on a South Wales valleys newspaper.

Set at the latter half of the 60’s at a time of political and social upheavel,Jake Nash’s arrival in the town of Edwardstown to work on the Enquirer, coincides with the local Welsh freedom fighters bid for national recognition.

David Simmonds writes with warmth, enthusiasm and evidence of a great deal of research into the feelings of Welsh valley folk . He does not try to diminish the efforts of the nationalists or paint them as fools-they have comedic moments but their cause for a free Wales is recognised and contextualised.

The plot makes a linear progression from Jake’s reminiscence of times past to the rededication of the local war memorial which goes horribly wrong. Along the way there are some great scenes involving a local rugby match, a botched abduction and a beauty contest that made me laugh out loud. I really enjoyed reading about the role of the media at this time in the abscence of the internet and the need to know everything,all.of the time.

In the valleys, and indeed further south,the local newspaper was where all news was obtained , now sadly replaced by Facebook groups and round the clock broadcasting.I really enjoyed reading ‘Jake’s Progress’ and look forward to more from this author.

About the Author….

 David Simmonds was born in North London and went to what was then the University College of North Wales, Bangor. After a failed attempt at teaching (six weeks), he spent a year working and travelling in Canada and America before returning to train as a journalist with weekly newspapers in the South Wales valleys. He spent most of his working life with BBC Wales in Cardiff as a radio and television producer and director.
He began writing fiction after taking early retirement. His work has been published in magazines and on-line, and in 2017 he won the Writers’ and Artists’ Short Story competition. ‘Jake’s Progress’, based on his time as a trainee reporter in the valleys, is his first novel.
David now lives in Penarth, just outside Cardiff, with his wife Mary and an irascible cat, Mrs Grumpy. Much of his time is spent in the service of his two daughters and three grandsons or rowing on the River Taff.

Twitter : @DavidRSimmonds3

Link to buy-https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jakes-Progress-romance-revenge-reporting-ebook/dp/B079WXKSPK