207 SQUADRON ROYAL AIR FORCE HISTORY

Kevin Grant's Deeps and Shallows

Book Review Deeps and Shallows – verse captions to a minor life by Kevin Grant Books by ex-RAF members tend to be about their experiences in and around aircraft, with pages spiced with anecdotes of close calls, run-ins with superiors, Mess parties, life off base - all the highs and lows of service life. This book is different: first it is mainly verse and second it says (almost) nothing about Kevin’s time in the Royal Air Force which he admitted, in conversation, was but two years National Service and seems to loom large in his memory, as I believe it does for many of us. Looking back, we wouldn’t have missed it for all the tea in China. There’s plenty more good stuff where that came from and for those who have wondered about the story behind ‘The People who Read the Papers’ and who may have quoted some of the definitions when viewing the headlines, this is a must-have book.

photo: Swindon Advertiser

To Drama School Seventeen, the perfect blessed age, The world’s before you And the world’s a stage. Go with a light, sure step Upon its boards. Be generous – And reap its true rewards. One thing it asks Of players great and small Before it gives – It asks of you your all.

Kevin, an Air Gunner on the B-29 Washington on No.207 Squadron, has come up with a delightful little volume of verse and prose gloriously illustrated by his nephew, Jake Grant a cartoonist, who deserves to become better known for his witty drawings which compliment some of the poems. There are witty two liners, limericks, sage and perceptive four liners and many other poems which reflect Kevin’s broad experience of sunshine and shadow in a life which is far from minor. The following which was written for a young man going to drama school is good advice to any teenager setting out on their chosen path. If your children are too old, then perhaps you have a grandchild about to set off to university or to their first job. Deeps and Shallows though a slim volume is a good bargain at £9.99+p&p. John Laing, Air Gunner, 207 Squadron

See also:
Review http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=723
The author http://www.adver.co.uk/display.var.1848233.0.0.php

Title: Deeps and Shallows, Verse captions to a minor life
Author: Kevin Grant
Illustrator: Jake Grant
Published by Words Ink on 16th October 2007
Hardback, 112 pages, £9.99, plus £1.50 packaging and post (Ireland/Europe £3.00, Rest of World £4.00)
ISBN 978-0-9529352-1-6

Cheques to be made payable to Words Ink. Visa/Mastercard accepted. Please give your full postal address with postcode, your name as on the card, the 16-digit number, the expiry date and the 3-digit security code on the reverse of the card. Orders cannot be processed without all of this information

Distributors: Prompt Reply, PO Box 2001, PETWORTH, West Sussex GU28 9YA.

For signed or inscribed copies, please send to Kevin direct at:
147 Brunel Crescent, SWINDON SN2 IFE
Tel: 01793 435527: email: kevin AT words-ink.fsnet.co.uk (replace AT with @ before sending)

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last updated 6 Dec 2007