“Alfred who?” I said to my PA.
“Alfred Nestor! You know, the gentleman I told you about a while ago, he’s asking about having his life story being accepted for publication,” she replied down the phone.
My PA had been in contact with Alfred Nestor for some months as he had been in touch several times over his life story. To be honest, my business Mirage Publishing receives on average about 100 life story typescripts every year. The sad thing is that almost all of them have the missing “zing” element.
However, my PA was excited about Alfred Nestor’s story as it was not quite the usual hum-drum, usual account that never gets to make it in to print. Long story short, the life story of Alfred Nestor did have the zing touch and was accepted for publication and given the name “Uncle Hitler”.
The book detailed his life growing up in Germany during World War Two and his final journey to the UK as a child, and eventually, some 60 years later, being reunited with his long lost father, who was thought to have perished in the war as an SS officer.
That might be the end of the story, as usually after the autobiography of a person has been published then that is it! Their writing career comes to a standstill.
To make the background to what follows, it is best to tell the reader that one morning Alfred Nestor woke up and felt rather strange. On trying to get out of bed, he found that he was paralysed on his right side! At first he thought that maybe he had slept awkwardly, and his right side was stiff, but he soon realized that he had suffered a stroke.
Ten years after this first stroke, Alfred suffered a second stroke, but this was different, although he did not consider it as important as he was only ill for a week in hospital, it was to change his whole life!
After thirteen weeks of convalescence, he returned to his job as security manager with a security company. This was, in some respects, a mistake for he was not happy, physically or mentally, as he still had many problems.
Eventually Alfred made a full recovery, but now he discovered a flair for writing that he never before had! Where once he was stuck for words, words flowed in the creative style of writing ... writing novels, his life story, comedy and even historical fiction!
After his first book was taken on by Mirage Publishing in 2011, more work followed from Alfred for consideration of publication. So impressed was I with his work that I immediately signed him up to five new titles!
References to Alfred’s strokes were barely mentioned in the Uncle Hitler book, but after in-depth conversations with me it became apparent that it was only after Alfred had suffered his second stroke that his writing talents became abundant.
Alfred tells me, “I was asked the other day by another author, 'How do you cope when you get a writers block?' and my answer was, 'I don't have those things ... I wish I did sometimes to give me some peace,' which is very true, for many times I wake up in the morning and dash off to write a chapter in my latest novel, which I must have worked out in my sleep. Madness has the same effect I understand!”
At the age of 72, Alfred Nestor has a new life an author! As well as helping fellow stroke sufferers by giving motivational talks in hospitals, health and community centres, he now finds his autobiography is used by schools to help educate pupils on the ravages of war.
Some might look at Alfred as some sort of freak of nature, being gifted with writing skills he never had by virtue of some sort of divine intervention to make up for the ills he has suffered as a child in war-torn Germany, but Alfred says, “It’s all very strange how I write, and drives the other authors up the wall. I have no idea of what my next novel is going to be about. I just sit in front of the computer screen and let my mind wander, and the first words that appear gives me the subject, and the story just follows on its own.”
Indeed, it would seem that what has happened to Alfred with regards his new writing career was a stroke of luck! Certainly, the power of the mind is a huge factro in this, too. As well as the book Uncle Hitler, Alfred has had other titles published (Achtung...We Rule the Waves: A Saga of War at Sea and Shadows in the Darkness) and there are many forthcoming titles awaiting publication.
“Alfred Nestor! You know, the gentleman I told you about a while ago, he’s asking about having his life story being accepted for publication,” she replied down the phone.
My PA had been in contact with Alfred Nestor for some months as he had been in touch several times over his life story. To be honest, my business Mirage Publishing receives on average about 100 life story typescripts every year. The sad thing is that almost all of them have the missing “zing” element.
However, my PA was excited about Alfred Nestor’s story as it was not quite the usual hum-drum, usual account that never gets to make it in to print. Long story short, the life story of Alfred Nestor did have the zing touch and was accepted for publication and given the name “Uncle Hitler”.
The book detailed his life growing up in Germany during World War Two and his final journey to the UK as a child, and eventually, some 60 years later, being reunited with his long lost father, who was thought to have perished in the war as an SS officer.
That might be the end of the story, as usually after the autobiography of a person has been published then that is it! Their writing career comes to a standstill.
To make the background to what follows, it is best to tell the reader that one morning Alfred Nestor woke up and felt rather strange. On trying to get out of bed, he found that he was paralysed on his right side! At first he thought that maybe he had slept awkwardly, and his right side was stiff, but he soon realized that he had suffered a stroke.
Ten years after this first stroke, Alfred suffered a second stroke, but this was different, although he did not consider it as important as he was only ill for a week in hospital, it was to change his whole life!
After thirteen weeks of convalescence, he returned to his job as security manager with a security company. This was, in some respects, a mistake for he was not happy, physically or mentally, as he still had many problems.
Eventually Alfred made a full recovery, but now he discovered a flair for writing that he never before had! Where once he was stuck for words, words flowed in the creative style of writing ... writing novels, his life story, comedy and even historical fiction!
After his first book was taken on by Mirage Publishing in 2011, more work followed from Alfred for consideration of publication. So impressed was I with his work that I immediately signed him up to five new titles!
References to Alfred’s strokes were barely mentioned in the Uncle Hitler book, but after in-depth conversations with me it became apparent that it was only after Alfred had suffered his second stroke that his writing talents became abundant.
Alfred tells me, “I was asked the other day by another author, 'How do you cope when you get a writers block?' and my answer was, 'I don't have those things ... I wish I did sometimes to give me some peace,' which is very true, for many times I wake up in the morning and dash off to write a chapter in my latest novel, which I must have worked out in my sleep. Madness has the same effect I understand!”
At the age of 72, Alfred Nestor has a new life an author! As well as helping fellow stroke sufferers by giving motivational talks in hospitals, health and community centres, he now finds his autobiography is used by schools to help educate pupils on the ravages of war.
Some might look at Alfred as some sort of freak of nature, being gifted with writing skills he never had by virtue of some sort of divine intervention to make up for the ills he has suffered as a child in war-torn Germany, but Alfred says, “It’s all very strange how I write, and drives the other authors up the wall. I have no idea of what my next novel is going to be about. I just sit in front of the computer screen and let my mind wander, and the first words that appear gives me the subject, and the story just follows on its own.”
Indeed, it would seem that what has happened to Alfred with regards his new writing career was a stroke of luck! Certainly, the power of the mind is a huge factro in this, too. As well as the book Uncle Hitler, Alfred has had other titles published (Achtung...We Rule the Waves: A Saga of War at Sea and Shadows in the Darkness) and there are many forthcoming titles awaiting publication.
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