Michael J Bird Tribute Website |
... as a journalist ...
Bird worked briefly on the Cambridge Daily News before moving to London to work for the Daily Mirror
and the Daily Herald. He also wrote for the News Chronicle and was a regular contributor to the magazine Titbits.
Bird kept an enormous scrap book of cuttings from the late 1950s. For Titbits he penned salciously illustrated accounts of war time heroines in France and Cyprus
and features about competeition winners 'day to remember' with radio stars.
He also contributed the piece alongside to 'TV Times' as early as 1958.
... and as an author
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Foreign Office Confidential True adventures of the 'Silver Greyhounds' Published by Souvenir Press, London (1961) Written with Geoffrey Kino His first book was written because he was friends with an old Colonel who had been a "King's Messenger" and who told him stories of his time in the Service. Bird wrote it with another friend, Geoffrey Kino, who died a couple of years later from cancer.
"Yesterday Messengers for the King - today the Queen's Messengers. Their proud motto always:
Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night shall stay these Couriers in the swift completion of their appointed rounds." |
e-Book
In July 2017 Bird's son (also named Michael) re-published it as an e-Book for the Kindle. At only 3.99 it is well worth getting an electronic copy to while away the odd half hour commuting to the office or to take with you on those long summer holidays. (And after purchasing don't forget to give the book a good review!) |
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The Town that Died Published by Souvenir Press, London (31st May 1962) (although there have been several editions over the years) "On the morning of December 6th, 1917, two ships, one of them loaded with over 2,600 tons of high explosives, collided in Halifax harbour, Nova Scotia. In an instant, over one square mile of Halifax was erased along with scores of lives." |
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Before publication the book was adapted and serialised in the UK Sunday Express newspaper in March 1962. Bird spent more than a year piecing together this
documentary account. In an interview in 1997 he said: His wife Olive says: After over fifty years royalties are still being received from Canada, where the book is considered to be the definitive account of events and is used as a history book." In the early days of the website, visitor Donna Isnor e-mailed
from Nova Scotia to say: |
For more information click any book cover. |
Michael J Bird Tribute Website |
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