{"id":462,"date":"2019-04-28T17:34:29","date_gmt":"2019-04-28T16:34:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.adendinnerclub.com\/?p=462"},"modified":"2019-04-28T17:36:24","modified_gmt":"2019-04-28T16:36:24","slug":"the-al-eden-emergency-by-sp-moss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.adendinnerclub.com\/?p=462","title":{"rendered":"“The Al-Eden Emergency” by S.P. Moss"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe Al-Eden Emergency\u201d by Susan (S.P. Moss)
\nThe third in a series of retro-style adventure stories for 9 \u2013 12s, inspired by the author\u2019s Aden childhood<\/strong><\/p>\n

Flying and travel are in my blood \u2013 as the daughter of an RAF officer and an RCAF officer-turned-teacher, I visited four of the world\u2019s continents before\u00a0 starting school. From 1962 \u2013 1964, my father was stationed at RAF Steamer Point (JPS HQ Middle East), while my mother taught at Chapel Hill School. My very earliest memories are of Aden \u2013 an exotic, magical but sadly so troubled place.<\/p>\n

Slides that were made of wood, as metal in that heat would have given your backside a nasty shock! Goats and camels wandering nonchalantly through the streets. The shark nets at Tarshyne beach. The taste of Stim pop, drunk from an ice-cold bottle.<\/p>\n

When we returned to the UK my parents took the decision to stop the moving around \u2013 they had done plenty of that when my brother and I were little. We settled in Camberley, and my mum held the fort while my dad was posted here, there and everywhere around the country. We only got to see him at weekends, and not every weekend, either. In those distant pre-internet days, it meant making the most of what time we had together as a family. Looking back, I think I must have subconsciously soaked up my dad\u2019s RAF ways and expressions, so that I could keep him with me at all times.<\/p>\n

My childhood was full of books. I read avidly and wrote determinedly in between plotting to become a spy and building brother-proof camps.<\/p>\n

Once he\u2019d retired from flying, my dad worked as a tutor at the Staff College, Bracknell, where he \u2018…wrestled to impart some respect for the English language in our future leaders of the Royal Air Force,\u2019 as one of his colleagues put it. He\u2019d always planned to write his memoirs, but events took another course and, armed with logbooks, sepia-tinted photos and a few addresses of old chums, I set about the task that my dad never had a chance to start.<\/p>\n

I was fascinated by what lay behind the hours in the log books and what happened before and after the black and white snapshots. And, while I was writing he biography, my young son asked what his granddad was like. A delightful “what if” question flitted into my mind, and with it a lost world, full of danger, dirty deeds and derring-do. My publisher described it as \u2018a long-forgotten beauty \u2013 not fantasy, not ancient history, but something you and I had forgotten was magic: a Britain where country roads were bright and welcoming, where cars, motorbikes and aeroplanes \u2013 not to mention their pilots \u2013 still had an aura\u00a0 of adventure about them.\u2019<\/p>\n

A delightful thought whizzed through my head: what if a 21st century boy, born into the digital age of smart phones, Google and virtual reality could meet a hero of the analogue age, and experience the adventurous world of those times? The idea for The Bother in Burmeon<\/a> was born.<\/p>\n

This race against time, with beasts, baddies and bombs around every corner, was followed by Trouble in Teutonia<\/a>. This sequel \u2013 or is it a prequel? \u2013 takes place after the first book for Billy, the young hero, but before for his Grandpop. Cue all manner of time-travel conundrums.<\/p>\n

My latest book, The Al-Eden Emergency<\/a>, draws the most on my personal experience. Like the other books, it is \u201calternative history\u201d for young readers, and he plot itself is pure escapism. It\u2019s set in 1966, in a fictitious Middle Eastern port not unlike my beloved Aden, with a few scenes set in Swinging London, too. There are thrills and spills aplenty, scorpions, sharks, amazing aircraft and ancient prophecies. A sinister rebel army, kidnapping teens to fulfil its mysterious leader\u2019s evil ambition, adds a strong note of relevance for today. As the strapline for all three books says \u2013 with apologies to L.P. Hartley \u2013 \u201cThe Past is a Dangerous Country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fiction it may be, but I hope that older readers who experienced the real \u201cAl-Eden\u201d will sense authenticity of both time and place. I\u2019ve used local landmarks in the story \u2013 The Crescent, Tarshyne Beach and the Tawila Tanks, among others.<\/p>\n

Both my parents have flown west now, and all that\u2019s physically left of our time in Aden are boxes of colour slides, a few moth-eaten camel stools and other\u00a0 assorted souvenirs, like my mum\u2019s beautiful gold brooch in the shape of a jambiyah. But the memories burn strongly. Maybe my story will kindle an interest in Aden and its history amongst a new generation of UK children. And, more than anything, I hope that one day I can make a return visit to regain the paradise of my childhood. Inshallah!
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe Al-Eden Emergency\u201d by Susan (S.P. Moss) The third in a series of retro-style adventure stories for 9 \u2013 12s, Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-memories","no-post-thumbnail","no-read-more-tag","no-sticky","use-excerpt","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.adendinnerclub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.adendinnerclub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.adendinnerclub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.adendinnerclub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.adendinnerclub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=462"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.adendinnerclub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":466,"href":"http:\/\/www.adendinnerclub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462\/revisions\/466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.adendinnerclub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.adendinnerclub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.adendinnerclub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}