Cycling challenge set the wheels in motion for author’s new book

From belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Writer completed 1,000-mile coastal ride in just 21 days 

A Northern Ireland author has released a book he decided to pen over lockdown about an epic cycling challenge he undertook 20 years ago.

Cecil Lowry, who is originally from Downpatrick but has been living in Stockport for many years, has released The Diary of an Irish Pedaller with the help of Belfast-based publisher Shanway Press.

It details his 1,000-mile cycle around the coast of Ireland, which took 21 days.

Cecil travelled through 17 counties on two wheels at the age of 54 in June 2002. He cycled around the Aran Islands, the lakes of Killarney and even passed the Giant’s Causeway.

He said that after cycling for enjoyment as a child, he took up the sport again after retiring as a PE teacher in his fifties.

Now, at the age of 74, Cecil still enjoys cycling every day and wanted to share his epic challenge with others.

“Cycling is good because it clears my head. I really enjoy it,” he said.

“I decided to take myself off on this challenge, initially to raise money for Marie Curie after my parents had passed away. I ended up raising £3,400 at the time.”

While on holiday in Spain prior to the cycle, Cecil took a book with him to read, Around Ireland With A Fridge by Tony Hawks, which inspired him to undertake the challenge to raise as much money as he could for a charity close to his heart.

“I ended up keeping a diary during my travels of where I went to and what happened, including drinking pints on the north coast and hitching a lift on a mussel fishing boat across Carlingford Lough, as well as getting a buckle in my back wheel coming through the mountains of Mourne.

“I thought, ‘Why not turn my adventures into a book?’

When he set out to map his route, Cecil realised it would be more than 3,000 miles to cycle the entire coastline, so to keep it manageable, he worked out a route of 1,000 miles.

“My wife left me off at the boat at Holyhead with nothing but my bike and two panniers and I set off for Dublin,” he said.

“I reckoned I could cycle 50 to 60 miles a day, but even though I had a rough plan worked out, I didn’t book anywhere to stay because I wasn’t sure what was going to be too much, so I just rolled up at B&Bs and hotels when I decided I had done enough for the day.

“On a typical day I would set off at around 9.30am and finish at 4.30pm.”

                                                      Cecil in Ballycastle

Cecil carried all his own gear for the entire cycle and received no support throughout the trip, other than a phone in case of emergencies. “Some of the most memorable milestones was when I hitched a lift across Carlingford Lough with a mussel fishing boat, and when I stayed at Strandhill on the West Coast I enjoyed a seaweed bath to wind down the day,” he said.

“When I cycled through the Mournes and was on my way to Newcastle I hit my first hurdle and got a buckle in my back wheel on my way into the town. I stopped at a bike shop and they fixed it right away.

“I met some really lovely people and it’s a time of my life I’ll treasure forever, so it is nice that my stories are being turned into a book to inspire others.”

His latest book is a little bit more light-hearted than his previous works, which focused primarily on Japanese prisoners of war during the Second World War, like his father.

Released last year, Frank Pantridge MC: Japanese Prisoner of War And Inventor of the Portable Defibrillator was a huge success in UK bookstores.

It was officially launched in Northern Ireland by Dame Mary Peters along with a statue of Frank Pantridge, which was unveiled outside Lisburn Conference Centre.

The Diary of an Irish Pedaller (£10, Shanway Press) and can be purchased at shanway.com

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sunday-life/news/cycling-challenge-set-the-wheels-in-motion-for-authors-new-book-41845133.html

A Voice from the Past – Hattie’s diary entry from Hong Kong

From pressherald.com

The Brick Store Museum holds over 30,000 pieces of archival material written by historic Kennebunkers. A Voice from the Past shares from the museum’s collection. This week’s column is from a local woman named Hattie, who travelled with her husband, a ship captain, around the world in 1884. In this diary, she is writing from Hong Kong. Her diary is currently on view in the museum’s exhibition “Sea of Stories.”

Tuesday, January 1st 1884

It is now more than two years since my last attempt at keeping a diary. The year of ’82 (Aug. 10th) brought us another baby boy, and the year ’83 (Sept. 25th) took from us our darling Bennie, our first born, given, or rather lent to us Oct. 5th, 1880 in Hong Kong, and taken from us in the same place, on our third voyage to that port; within two days of his third birthday, it is useless to attempt to describe in words the bitterness of our grief – God alone knows it. He alone can help us.

My room was finished today, recess painted and carpet put down one room after another is being garnished and put in order — the three after cabin staterooms are done, also the bathroom and after vestibule. We are bound to New York with cargo of fire crackers, cassia, matting, etc. from Hong Kong and if our darling boy were only with us, this homeward passage would be a very happy one.

Wednesday Jan. 2nd, ’84 – Fine all day, until towards evening when heavy banks of clouds rising up brought a strong wind – calm, with heavy swell, all the afternoon. Captain has worked very hard today in the cabin and on deck; he does all the varnishing in the cabin, and oversees the work generally. Tom paints and steward and cabin boy do the scrubbing. We are not making very rapid progress toward our destined port having had head winds and calms for several days past. We are nearing the cape of Good Hope very slowly – hope the wind will not last much longer in this direction, as am anxious to get home – though why, I can hardly tell, as I can never be happy or contented there or elsewhere without my darling boy. When God took him, he took all earthly happiness from me at the same time. I shall never see another happy day as long as I live and I feel sometimes that I do not want to live any longer – still I know that I am not ready to die. 

Well, if I cannot be happy myself, I can endeavour to make others happy, and must and will try, to live a good life – one that shall be acceptable in the sight of God – so that when this earthly life is done, I may be reunited to my angel boy in that world where sorrow and partings are unknown and where God shall wipe away all tears.” Little Ralph is growing very fast, and is a dear little boy, but he can never take little Bennie’s place in my heart.

https://www.pressherald.com/2022/07/13/a-voice-from-the-past-hatties-diary-entry-from-hong-kong/ 

The secret Pacific war diaries of Walter J. Hinkle

From faribaultcountyregister.com

Jim Pollard’s new book reveals POW Hinkle’s concealed Pacific War diaries

Imprisonment, a world at war, parted lovers and a mysterious wooden leg…

This is the story of Lieutenant Walter J. Hinkle, which was nearly lost to the ravages of time.

When Blue Earth resident Jim Pollard obtained Hinkle’s diary in 2017, he recognized he had stumbled upon a treasure. Now, that treasure is revealed to the public in The Secret POW Diary of Walter J. Hinkle, a book researched and edited by Pollard.

The diaries, which are presented, unedited, in Pollard’s book, detail Hinkle’s experience as a prisoner of war at the Daveo Penal Colony in Japan.

Hinkle was stationed in the Philippines in the spring of 1941. His leg was severely injured that December, leaving him an invalid when the Philippines fell to Japan in May of 1942.

Bedridden and imprisoned by the Japanese army, Hinkle pieced together a diary on scraps of paper and cigarette wrappers.

According to Pollard, it is very lucky that he did so.

“It’s extremely rare to have a Pacific War diary,” Pollard says. “There were fewer soldiers fighting in the Pacific, and keeping a diary was very low on your list.” 

Unusual circumstances enabled Hinkle to keep his 136,000-word diary safely hidden from the scrutiny of the prison guards.

When Hinkle’s injured leg was amputated, it was replaced with a wooden leg containing a false compartment – perfect for concealing a contraband document.

Walter J. Hinkle, above, left, shows his diaries, and their secret compartment in his wooden leg, to Pfc. Russ Simon

The carefully-kept diary details one of the longest periods of Japanese military captivity experienced by any American during the Second World War.

Hinkle updated his diary faithfully, sometimes bartering food for paper. Pollard believes Hinkle hoped to craft an accurate portrayal of his experiences for the benefit of the outside world.

Unfortunately, Hinkle was often unable to document specific details for fear of implicating the people around him. Instead, he reported important bits of news as ‘camp rumors.’

Hinkle’s experiences themselves were also limited.

“The problem with Hinkle’s diary is that he spends the entire war in a (prisoner of war) hospital bed,” Pollard notes. “Part of camp life was missing from the story.”

Pollard wanted to flesh out Hinkle’s experiences with additional perspectives in his book. So, he supplemented Hinkle’s diary entries with the diaries of other individuals with whom Hinkle crossed paths.

“He (Hinkle) is the hubbub of the wheel around which the story turns,” Pollard explains. “The other five stories have completed the wheel.” 

Pollard wove five supplemental perspectives throughout the book. They include the diaries of a Japanese soldier, a Filipino local, a Bataan Death March survivor and a Davao Penal Colony escapee. Pollard identified them as the best stories to compliment Hinkle’s after two years of painstaking research.

The endeavor required a combination of dedication and serendipity, as do many aspects of Pollard’s hobby.

“In a way, discovering things is a form of adventure,” he considers. “(When doing research) you have to be sort of dogged and obsessive. It’s a trail, and it leads you where it leads you.” 

Pollard’s book, for example, is a product of chance and relentless patience. It is luck, after all, that led Pollard to Hinkle’s diary in the first place.

The diary traveled between four owners before landing in Pollard’s possession.

Eileen Hinkle initially owned the diary after her husband’s death. However, when Eileen died, she willed the Hinkle estate, and the diary along with it, to the family lawyer, Camilla Broderick. Broderick sold the diary to her hairdresser, who had an interest in antiques, and the hairdresser listed Hinkle’s diary for sale on eBay.

Eventually, the artifact was purchased by Rob Morgan, a friend of Pollard’s and a big-time collector of diaries.

It just so happened that Pollard was on the lookout for a new research project when Morgan acquired the diary. Morgan suggested the unusual document might be just what Pollard was searching for.

“That began a five-year odyssey that concluded, this week, with Schiffer Publishing’s release of my book, The Secret POW Diary of Walter J. Hinkle,” Pollard says.

The book’s publication was nearly as complicated as its research.

Pollard considered offers from three different publishers before settling with Schiffer Publishing, who agreed to publish the book using Pollard’s own design.

Pollard wanted an atypical layout for the book: two columns to a page, with a smattering of supplemental diary entries throughout and a variety of photographs.

“I wanted that because of the types of photographs I had,” Pollard says, adding, “I wanted the book to be small: diary-size.” 

Pollard also insisted that Hinkle’s diaries be published unedited.

“The way I like to read history is through a first-hand account,” Pollard explains. “I insisted the book be printed as-is. My voice is not in there.”

As such, Hinkle’s original diary entries are now available on Amazon, Schiffer Publishing’s website, and at Barnes & Noble. The book will also be available through booksellers in Germany and England.

You might say Pollard’s long journey to authorship ended just as satisfactorily as Walter J. Hinkle’s journey to freedom.

During his imprisonment, Hinkle found solace in memories of the Minnesota Boundary Waters, where he had once traveled with his dad on a fishing trip.

“At his worst moment, that place was magical,” Pollard says.

Hinkle returned to the Boundary Waters after he was liberated in 1945, an experience which was captured in a photograph appearing on the last page of Pollard’s book.

In the photograph, honeymooners Hinkle and Eileen grin from a small, white fishing boat, the Boundary Waters and distant woods at their backs.

“The story is essentially a love story,” Pollard says. “They met before the war on a cruise ship. They kept in touch, married after the war and had their honeymoon in the place he dreamed of.”

Pollard compares the story’s poetic symmetry to that of a Hollywood screenplay.

And yet, Hinkle’s story was very nearly lost to history, as are the words of so many people when nobody takes the time to read them.

“What’s curious about diaries is if you see them at auctions, they sell for almost nothing,” Pollard says. “Diaries are more ephemeral. They just sit in the drawer. You have to be the type of person who can enjoy seeing the experience vicariously through the words of other people.” 

https://www.faribaultcountyregister.com/news/local-news/2022/07/03/the-secret-diaries-of-walter-j-hinkle/