Blitz
By Vince Cross
Edie Benson is my personal favourite character from these books, probably because she reminds me of some of my own family. I was born not very far from Lewisham in south London where this story is set. Read about how Edie and her family deal with the trauma of the nightly bombing and find an inner strength they never knew they had.
About
Hello, I’m Vince Cross. Thanks for dropping by.
I’m a writer and composer, specialising in books and music for children.
I also blog about walking and spirituality.
In the past I’ve been a producer of speech and music for children learning English all around the world. Millions of kids will have heard what we’ve recorded for courses by York Press, Pearson and O.U.P.
I’ve also been a teacher, a session pop musician, the manager of a recording studio, the Director of music for a church, and a writer and composer for TV, radio and the stage.
Books
Here are some books of mine you might like to read.
All of these books should be available through Amazon and similar suppliers, and they may be in your local library too. ‘The A Club’ is out of print, but if you would like a copy, please contact me, and we’ll work out a way of getting one to you.
Alone in the Trenches
The horrific events of World War 1 are still in many people’s minds. I was never sure I could write about the subject, but then we came across an intriguing story about a little Belgian girl and a British ‘Tommy’. I think my book will bring a tear to your eye whether you’re eight or eighty. I hope you’ll find this a helpful introduction for younger readers to an important and difficult period of history
Berlin Olympics
I wanted to write a book for Britain’s Olympic year. It’s set in and around pre-World War II London, before my heroine Eleanor goes off to swim for Britain in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. If you’re interested in the history of sport and the rise of Nazi Germany you should like this.
Blitz
Edie Benson is my personal favourite character from these books, probably because she reminds me of some of my own family. I was born not very far from Lewisham in south London where this story is set. Read about how Edie and her family deal with the trauma of the nightly bombing and find an inner strength they never knew they had.
Hero at Dunkirk
Your life and mine might not have turned out so well without the heroism of people like 15 year old Joe Read. This is the amazing and true story of how Joe and his dad helped rescue hundreds of soldiers from the beaches of Dunkirk in 1940. If you watched the flotilla on the Thames for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee you may have seen their boat the ‘New Britannic’ now newly restored.
Egyptian Princess
Like many people, I’ve always been fascinated by the ancient Egyptians and how they lived. My character ‘Asha’ is the real life Queen Hatshepsut, the first female Pharoah. I’ve re-invented her as an early ‘free-runner’, and imagined how she might have come to power as a young teenager somewhere around 1500 B.C. Someone suggested that the language in this book sounded too modern. That’s the point, I think. These people were both astonishingly like us, and completely different.
The A Club: The Blogs of Abi Goodenough
Abi Goodenough is a clever girl, there’s no doubt about that. But her friends, teachers, parents and just about everyone else she knows all want a big piece of her. Why can’t they see she needs some time and space for herself? As Abi’s problems pile up she uses her blog to tell the story of three hectic months in her teenage life.
Bighead
Andy is confined to his wheelchair after a car accident. But he’s an excellent guitarist and despite Andy’s doubts his mates know that their band BIGHEAD can’t function without him. Will they win the Battle of the Bands and go on to fame and fortune? This is a short book for those who find reading more difficult.
War Stories: Home and Away
A great offer from Scholastic Books. My Blitz story about Edie Benson bundled with Sue Reid’s War Nurse and Jill Atkins’ Sophie’s Secret War. Three books in one!
Music
NEW CHORAL ALBUM
‘BEFORE DURING AFTER’
The following fifteen re-mixed tracks were first recorded solo during the year 2020/21 following the first Covid lockdown, as part of our ‘Ten on Sunday’ initiative. They roughly follow the annual progress of the Christian year from Palm Sunday to Pentecost, and are mostly favourites from the Anglican choral repertoire. The project took only a modest amount to record and publish, so I’m now hoping to raise some funds by asking for suitable donations to listen or make a download. No pressure, but if your circumstances permit and you’d like to, please click on the link or QR Code below to give directly to St. Mary’s Church, Morcott where the Parochial Church Council is about to undertake a once in a hundred years refurbishment to make the church a more comfortable place to meet and worship. A fiver or tenner would be great, but please don’t let lack of funds stop you listening and enjoying for free.
Below is the Link and QR Code.
Select the One – off Gift option
Track 1: Jubilate: William Mathias
Track 2: Hosanna to the son of David: Orlando Gibbons
Track 3: Ave verum corpus: William Byrd
Track 4: O Lord, thou hast searched me out: William Croft
Track 5: Solus ad victimam: Kenneth Leighton
Track 6: Christus factus est pro nobis: Anton Bruckner
Track Listing
1 Jubilate: William Mathias
2 Hosanna to the son of David: Orlando Gibbons
3 Ave verum corpus: William Byrd
4 O Lord, thou hast searched me out: William Croft
5 Solus ad victimam: Kenneth Leighton
6 Christus factus est pro nobis: Anton Bruckner
7 Greater Love: John Ireland
8 Haec dies: William Byrd
9 Sing choirs of heaven: Richard Shephard
10. My soul, there is a country: Charles Hubert Parry
11. O sing joyfully: Adrian Batten
12. O Holy Spirit, Lord of grace: Christopher Tye
13. Beati quorum via integra est: Charles Villiers Stanford
14. The Lord bless you and keep you: John Rutter
15. I seek not glory (En etsi valtaa, loistoa): Vince Cross/J. Sibelius
All vocals and instrumentals: Vince Cross (except soprano solo on ‘Greater Love’: Rachael Louise Miller).
Click HERE to download the whole album which will arrive as a folder and contains all the songs in a mp3 format to be used in your preferred audio player.
Track 7: Greater Love: John Ireland
Track 8: Haec dies: William Byrd
Track 9: Sing choirs of heaven: Richard Shephard
Track 10: My soul, there is a country: Charles Hubert Parry
And for the grown-ups…
(widely available on all platforms):
HEAD AND HEART: VINCE CROSS and BRENDAN READ JONES
Quiet American
The woman at the window
Oldies but goodies
And here are a few tracks from my 1999 CD: ‘Covering My Tracks’