Carl Williams:
jmc jnr:
paulycats:
Hi Carl, Have you ever thought to write a book? You could end up with a best seller. Your anecdote’s are great reading mate, they really are
I will second that idea and it would be wonderfull to have the history of Williams to hand. Put me down for a copy if it comes to fruit. Jim.
Thanks both of you for your kind thoughts, but I know my capabilities. I would need a Ghost writer, and would have gladly provided all the information, and not taken any proceeds from the project. One person did approach me, but wanted several thousands fees from me for his services, and then I would have to self publish. In my opinion it would be a con.
If a book were published I would want it to be a professional publication, of good quality as we did run a good quality business, priding ourselves on top quality maintenance of our vehicles. Sadly this is not possible, which is a shame because I do believe the information I would have provided would have been of interest to all Commercial vehicle & haulage enthusiasts and also interest to many people who live in County Durham & North East England. We certainly made mistakes but did a lot of things that many would be entrepreneurs could benefit from reading which would do them more good than a university degree in business studies.
So although I think there would be a market out there that would make it a viable proposition for a young writer & a speculative publisher, sadly I think it never will happen.
If you can’t bring yourself to write a book Carl (and I’m with those preceding who implore you to do so), then at least get all your posts and photos on here and flickr (and elsewhere) and collate them, and then archive them somewhere. As I age (and at 57 I’m still a young bloke here compared to some) I realise more and more how important it is for older blokes to save their stories somewhere that following generations can read. My old man died a few years ago, and I can’t tell you how much I wish I’d got him to write more stuff down.
As a reference, one chap I follow in flickr is Stephen Dowle aka Fray Bentos) who’s published one book and is writing another: see flickr.com/photos/fray_bentos/
Don’t let a (false?) sense of modesty stop you.