terrybrighton.co.uk
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Early Years I was born in Boston in the UK and during my teens the world changed: the Beatles, the bomb, and free love. At Lancaster University I pretended to study philosophy and politics while reading Sartre and Camus, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy - those guys made more sense than the professors. I was involved in anti-Vietnam War protests and as God was with the radicals back then, I studied theology at Birmingham University and was ordained an Anglican priest. The Church / Priesthood I became curate of St Martin's in Hereford, known as the SAS Church because of the nearby SAS camp, and assisted the army chaplain there. These were tough guys, but they would talk to a priest who drank with them, and I soon discovered that the truth about war was not reaching the history books. After more Chuch appointments I acknowledged that a man cannot live on his knees. God was not, after all, one of the guys. The Museum / Regiment Having taken leave of God, I became a curator in the 17th/21st Lancers Regimental Museum, located inside Belvoir Castle. The cap badge of the 17th/21st Lancers bears the regimental motto: Death Or Glory. In 1898 the 21st Lancers made the British Army's last cavalry charge at Omdurman, and this story became my first book: The Last Charge. The 17th Lancers rode in the front line of the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava, and I told of this most horrific ride in history in Hell Riders, making much use of survivors accounts. The Present We tell our lives by the places we have been and the work we have done, yet there's more significance in the women we have loved. After other loves, I married Linda in May 2009. We live in Lincolnshire in the UK, and in Los Gigantes in the Canary Isles. |
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