| Terry Brighton lives in Tamaimo on the slopes of the Mount Teide volcano in Tenerife. He writes on military history. |
Overview
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Terry
Brighton has been an Anglican priest, chaplain to the SAS, and
curator of The 17th/21st Lancers Museum. In 2009 he left the Ministry
of Defence, married Linda, and moved to live and write in Tamaimo.
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Biography
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Terry was born in the UK, and grew up with the Beatles and the bomb. At university he ducked philosophy lectures to read Sartre and Camus, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, becaue they made more sense than the professors. He joined anti-Vietnam War protests, and as God was with the radicals, he studied theology and was ordained an Anglican priest. |
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He became curate of St Martin's in Hereford and chaplain at the SAS camp. From these men he learned the truth about war - and none of it was reaching the history books. After more parish appointments he acknowledged that a man cannot live on his knees - God was not, after all, one of the guys - and left the Chuch. |
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Terry became a curator in the 17th/21st Lancers Regimental Museum at Belvoir Castle. In the regimental archives he disdovered first-hand accounts by survivors of the charge of the 21 Lancers at Omdurman, and the charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava, and these led to his first two books: The Last Charge and Hell Riders. |
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In 2009 Terry left the Ministry of Defence, married Linda, and
moved to live and write in Tamaimo, a small town on the lower
slopes of the Mount Teide volcano in Tenerife. In 2010 he was
awarded the Imperial Service Medal.
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Motto
| stercus reseces | (cut the crap) |
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Terry on writing and living in Tenerife He was interviewed by Alan Parr in Tamaimo on 1 September 2011 |
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Alan:
Everything has changed for you since we last spoke.
Terry: Yes - in a single month I left the Ministry of Defence, remarried, and moved with my new wife Linda to live and write in Tenerife in the Canary Isles. Alan: Tell me something about Tenerife. Terry: Nelson lost his right arm in a sea-battle for the island with the Spanish in 1797 - he also lost the battle. If he had won it, Tenerife would be an English possession now, but I'm glad he lost. The Spanish retain a passion that the English have lost to their timidity. Alan: What do you mean by that? Terry: Linda and I are passionate people, and it's still OK here to have deep feelings and express them forcefully. This is a volcanic island and the lava still bubbles deep below, which symbolises it all. Alan: Mount Teide is a dormant volcano and you live on its lower slopes - is that dangerous? Terry: It erupts about once every 100 years and the last burst was in 1909, so an eruption is due. Linda and I plan to embrace at the final moment so that archaeologists can dig us up in 1000 years and put us on display in a museum somewhere. Alan: You joke about it, but I sense the danger, however slight, appeals to you. Terry: England is too safe. There's an 'edge' to life here. So life is more intense. My writing has changed too. Alan: You need to explain that. Terry: On the obviously level, I can now devote all my time to writing. But it's more than that. In England we lived in Lincoln where the roads are flat and straight. In Tenerife we live on the mountain side where the roads are steep and snaking, and the drops to the side are huge. So much writing in England is flat, straight and safe. Here I can work on the edge! Alan: You clearly enjoy life in Tenerife, but there must be negatives. Terry: The mosquitoes love me. Then there's the calima, a sand storm blown in by hot, dry winds from the Sahara. Alan: Tell me about your writing day. Terry: I prefer to start at 5.00 each morning. My study window looks out on our garden - orange and lemon trees, honeysuckle, and man-sized cacti - and as the sun comes up the lizards crawl out of the dry-stone walling. Sometimes I work all day, sometimes I don't. There isn't a typical day. Alan: Any advice for would-be writers? Terry: Don't do it. There are too many writers already. Alan: That sounds harsh. Terry: Look, the only justification for writing anything is the near certainty that tens of thousands of readers will buy it. If I didn't think that about my current work then I wouldn't bother. I don't believe writers who say their work 'had to be written'. Nothing has to be written. Alan: For a writer you seem unusually focussed on marketing and sales. Terry: I get angry at writers who are not. Why the hell should a publisher want a book unless he/she has a damn good idea it will sell. Any writer who doesn't get involved in marketing is plain lazy. Alan: What do you enjoy, apart from writing? Terry: My wife, of course. Fiestas - and there's always one happening somewhere nearby. Walking our dog Belle (de Jour). And I read widely. Alan: Do you have any vices? Terry: All of them. Alan: Thanks for talking to me, Terry. Terry: Just don't mess with my answers. Alan: What if I do? Terry: I know where you live. |
Latest news
August 2011
Terry wrote display text for the new museum of The Queen's Royal Lancers. The museum, opened by HRH Princess Alexandra, includes the bugle blown by Trumpeter Brittain to sound the Charge of the Light Brigade, and the saddle used by Captain Morgan - both men feature in The Necessity of Killing.
September 2011
Terry completed the writing of The Necessity of Killing and launched jackblake.com.