Writers' News - Beacon of light

Beacon of light

For an adult, life as a lighthouse keeper was a harsh, spartan existence spent battling the elements and adhering to strict routines. But for a young boy, lighthouse life was filled with excitement and all the wonders of nature.

Cheshire member, Leonard Stocker, was that child growing up in what was called ’the silent service’ on magnificent lighthouses around the coast of Ireland.

He was driven to share the story of those early years in his novel Born on the Edge of White Water (£6.99), self-published with Pen Press. At the heart of the story is the troubled relationship with his father and the hardships Leonard endured at his hands.

Many years on and with his own children grown up, Leonard decided to write about his experiences, partly as a way for him to remember his childhood but also to recognise the silent service of his father and grandfather.

After many years living in and running pubs he decided to take a job as a security guard, hoping that the night shift would offer him time to write between the patrols on the long and lonely twelve-hour shifts.

‘There were many times when I put the unfinished manuscript in a drawer and tried to forget it,’ he says.

‘That worked for a while, the frustration would fade and I’d return to being my happy but unfulfilled self until the next issue of Writers’ News dropped through my letterbox and I would read about people who stuck with their dream to be an author and succeeded.’

He has since written a second book Life Behind Bars (public bars).

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