Martin Campbell's Blog, page 2
April 26, 2023
Free Giveaway - Bad Beat Hotel
This is a limited giveaway of my first book, Bad Beat Hotel. I'm trying this as an experiment.
As an author and as a reader, I have not always been convinced of the effectiveness of giveaways, on the principal that anything free isn't usually seen as having much value.
We'll see. Here's the link.
https://claims.prolificworks.com/free...
Any feedback welcomed.
As an author and as a reader, I have not always been convinced of the effectiveness of giveaways, on the principal that anything free isn't usually seen as having much value.
We'll see. Here's the link.
https://claims.prolificworks.com/free...
Any feedback welcomed.
April 10, 2023
Sailor's Heart free copies
Last four remaining copies of audiobook version of award winning Sailor's Heart.
https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Sailors-...
Two US and two UK copies available on Audible.com
Please contact me.
First-come-first-served!
Thank you.
https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Sailors-...
Two US and two UK copies available on Audible.com
Please contact me.
First-come-first-served!
Thank you.
March 16, 2023
Bad Beat Hotel: Goodreads Giveaway
I am pleased to announce that my first novel, Bad Beat Hotel (2016) has been published in Kindle and will be available for the first time as a Goodreads Giveaway from Mar 19 - Mar 31, 2023.
If you like poker, Scottish comedy, dark humour, gritty thrillers, plumbing, plot twists, or any combination of the above, this book could be for you...
If you like poker, Scottish comedy, dark humour, gritty thrillers, plumbing, plot twists, or any combination of the above, this book could be for you...
March 5, 2023
Sailor's Heart - Free copies of audiobook.
To celebrate the release of the audiobook version of Sailor's Heart, I am giving away five free copies on Audible.com Please contact me if you would like one of the promo codes to download the book.
First-come-first-served!
Thank you.
First-come-first-served!
Thank you.
March 2, 2023
December 6, 2022
Sailor's Heart audio book
I'm delighted to report that the audio book version of Sailor's Heart will be available on audible.com from January 2023.
This has been a long road, finding a suitable actor to read the book (11 hours), then enlisting an excellent audio technician to format the beginning, end and chapters, but after four months work, we are almost ready to go.
Just one year since the original publication date, Sailor's Heart will now be available in paperback, Kindle and audio, to cater for a variety of reading and listening preferences!
Thanks again to everyone who has read and reviewed it this year. This is much appreciated.
This has been a long road, finding a suitable actor to read the book (11 hours), then enlisting an excellent audio technician to format the beginning, end and chapters, but after four months work, we are almost ready to go.
Just one year since the original publication date, Sailor's Heart will now be available in paperback, Kindle and audio, to cater for a variety of reading and listening preferences!
Thanks again to everyone who has read and reviewed it this year. This is much appreciated.
August 11, 2022
Sailor’s Heart Giveaway
There are ten copies of Sailor’s Heart up for grabs in the goodreads Giveaway scheme. Entries close on 18th August.
July 18, 2022
Book Review in The Herald
I was pleased to read this comprehensive review of Sailor's Heart in the Scottish newspapers, The Herald and The National.
Sailorʼs Heart by Martin Campbell, Published by Mighty Pens.
Review: The Herald, 20th June 2022
If you were to try to locate the naval base HMS Standard today, youʼd have to dive 170 feet down into the Kielder Water reservoir in Northumberland to find whatʼs left of it. But during World War II, before the site was flooded, it served as a rehabilitation centre for sailors who had suffered mental breakdowns under the intense pressure of active service. The subject of Greenock-born Martin Campbellʼs second novel is three fictional seamen who suffered from “Sailorʼs Heart”, losing the will to fight, and even the will to live, and were sent to Kielder to recover from their traumas.
His trio of central characters are classified as Clarence the Coward, Marco the Malingerer and Duncan the Dodger, and the chapters in which they are introduced to us are a compelling blend of solid character-work and exhaustive research. Clarence is a big hairy man with a natural gift for engineering. Marco grew up in a circus before joining the Royal Navy as a gunner. Duncan grew up with lies, and is questioning his faith in everything.
Each has his own specific route to hell. Clarence is virtually catatonic after becoming convinced that he was responsible for the gruesome death of a shipmate. Marco, continually demeaned by a senior officer, suffers agonising stomach pains for which no physical cause can be found. Duncan goes AWOL after his brotherʼs senseless death, and is becoming aware of how heʼs been mentally conditioned by the Navy.
Itʼs sometimes hard to tell where fact ends and fiction begins in this fascinating and highly readable novel. Iʼve pretty much concluded that Dr James Dowden-Ballard, who subjected his patients to hazardous and questionable treatments in the 1750s, is as much a figment of Campbellʼs imagination as his descendant Dr A. John D. Ballard, who does the same thing at Kielder in the 1940s, although Campbellʼs imaginative flights are as wickedly convincing as his historically accurate detail.
According to his bio, Campbell is a clinical psychologist who has in the past worked as a window cleaner, ambulance driver, care worker and bottle washer. These chapters, though, give the impression of being written by someone with first-hand knowledge of serving in the Royal Navy during World War II. The minute details of living and working at sea during wartime are woven expertly into each manʼs story, in immersive detail, without the reader ever feeling on the receiving end of an info- dump.
The same canʼt be said, however, for an awkward chapter in the middle, which puts the narrative on hold to bring us up to speed on the casualty numbers and psychiatric referrals suffered by the armed forces, along with other research that Campbell seemingly couldnʼt find a way of integrating into the storyline.
At Kielder, psychiatrist Dr Ballard is clearly working in the dark, hoping that he will happen upon some methodology that will turn his patients back into fighting men. This leads to him testing out a risky new treatment on Clarence, which is at least partly responsible for the three men making to make a run for it.
The challenge for these damaged men is less about physically escaping from the compound as facing up to their shame of falling short of what their country required of them, and coming to terms with who they are.
What really strikes home in this compassionate, absorbing novel is how, as they bond in their quiet, phlegmatic way, three men branded as cowards demonstrate a resilience that would put the rest of us to shame.
ALASTAIR MABBOTT The Herald 20th June 2022
Sailorʼs Heart by Martin Campbell, Published by Mighty Pens.
Review: The Herald, 20th June 2022
If you were to try to locate the naval base HMS Standard today, youʼd have to dive 170 feet down into the Kielder Water reservoir in Northumberland to find whatʼs left of it. But during World War II, before the site was flooded, it served as a rehabilitation centre for sailors who had suffered mental breakdowns under the intense pressure of active service. The subject of Greenock-born Martin Campbellʼs second novel is three fictional seamen who suffered from “Sailorʼs Heart”, losing the will to fight, and even the will to live, and were sent to Kielder to recover from their traumas.
His trio of central characters are classified as Clarence the Coward, Marco the Malingerer and Duncan the Dodger, and the chapters in which they are introduced to us are a compelling blend of solid character-work and exhaustive research. Clarence is a big hairy man with a natural gift for engineering. Marco grew up in a circus before joining the Royal Navy as a gunner. Duncan grew up with lies, and is questioning his faith in everything.
Each has his own specific route to hell. Clarence is virtually catatonic after becoming convinced that he was responsible for the gruesome death of a shipmate. Marco, continually demeaned by a senior officer, suffers agonising stomach pains for which no physical cause can be found. Duncan goes AWOL after his brotherʼs senseless death, and is becoming aware of how heʼs been mentally conditioned by the Navy.
Itʼs sometimes hard to tell where fact ends and fiction begins in this fascinating and highly readable novel. Iʼve pretty much concluded that Dr James Dowden-Ballard, who subjected his patients to hazardous and questionable treatments in the 1750s, is as much a figment of Campbellʼs imagination as his descendant Dr A. John D. Ballard, who does the same thing at Kielder in the 1940s, although Campbellʼs imaginative flights are as wickedly convincing as his historically accurate detail.
According to his bio, Campbell is a clinical psychologist who has in the past worked as a window cleaner, ambulance driver, care worker and bottle washer. These chapters, though, give the impression of being written by someone with first-hand knowledge of serving in the Royal Navy during World War II. The minute details of living and working at sea during wartime are woven expertly into each manʼs story, in immersive detail, without the reader ever feeling on the receiving end of an info- dump.
The same canʼt be said, however, for an awkward chapter in the middle, which puts the narrative on hold to bring us up to speed on the casualty numbers and psychiatric referrals suffered by the armed forces, along with other research that Campbell seemingly couldnʼt find a way of integrating into the storyline.
At Kielder, psychiatrist Dr Ballard is clearly working in the dark, hoping that he will happen upon some methodology that will turn his patients back into fighting men. This leads to him testing out a risky new treatment on Clarence, which is at least partly responsible for the three men making to make a run for it.
The challenge for these damaged men is less about physically escaping from the compound as facing up to their shame of falling short of what their country required of them, and coming to terms with who they are.
What really strikes home in this compassionate, absorbing novel is how, as they bond in their quiet, phlegmatic way, three men branded as cowards demonstrate a resilience that would put the rest of us to shame.
ALASTAIR MABBOTT The Herald 20th June 2022
May 1, 2022
Book of the Week
I was delighted to see that Sailor's Heart was reviewed and awarded Book of the Week in this weekend's Dundee and Angus Courier.
https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-co...!
https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-co...!
April 23, 2022
Feature article on Sailor’s Heart
Feature article on Sailor’s Heart in today’s Dundee Courier.
https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/...
https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/...
