Lance Grimstone

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When the Tulips Bled
Brother Rats
A Rain of Ruin
Song of the Freedom Bird
Blue Sky Days
Greta and Anatola
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Taranaki Jack

Taranaki Jack

Rebellion, sugar slaves and gold in the south-west Pacific

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Testimonials

John S

Lance, I hope this email finds you in good health and good spirits. Thank you for your pictorial record of our travels in Japan, it has rekindled the happy times Lee and I enjoyed with our group of travellers. I am very impressed with your ability to produce it. …. On a serious note, Lance how do I buy copies of your books? …. I enjoyed A Rain of Ruin and all the more so as we just attended the commemorative celebration at Albany WA from where the fleet with thousands of soldiers and their horses sailed on November 1st 1914, and eventually went on to Gallipoli. It was then I became aware that the Japanese had provided the largest ship of the naval vessels which sailed with the convoy to protect it against any German attack. Of course, then there was World War II. How things change.

John S

John & Ruth N

Lance, I am writing to congratulate you on another excellent novel (A Rain of Ruin). I want you to know that reading your books is addictive and I hold you responsible for the sleep deprivation that goes with them. Lance, they are brilliant and I have enjoyed the three to date immensely. I am amazed at the research that you would have to do for the books and they are, for me, a great history lesson as well. A Rain of Ruin was of much interest to me as I am quite ignorant of Japanese culture, apart from two books I’d read by Bryce Courtney that introduced me to it. Yet yours are totally different – written without bias from an entirely different angle. Your characters are so fixed in my mind that it is easy to visualise each of them. I applaud your writing (skill) and please let me know when your next one is in print and where I can order it. My friend’s husband loves to read the same books as I do, so I lent him your three. It may interest you to know that when I next visited him, he had set up a monster world atlas on a wall and dotted it with pins to follow the locations in your books. I knew that he would enjoy them as thoroughly as I did.

John & Ruth N

R and J

Thank you, Lance, for your book A Rain of Ruin. It was an excellent read – another cracker of a book. Please let us know when you finish another one as it will be a ‘must-read’ for me.

R and J

Hamish

Dear Lance,

I enjoyed When Tulips Bled and Brother Rats. Haven’t read A Rain of Ruin yet so will have to get through that before #4….

Kind regards, Hamish

Gary L

Lance,

Good luck with the new book. You are a man of many talents!

Kindest regards, Gary L

Doug B

Hi Lance,

Great news on the books. You are a genius….

Cheers Doug B

Mick O’F

Hi Lance,

Will look for your books. Need one on the plane to Cambodia in a couple of weeks. What was the one on ‘Nam?

Cheers, Mick O’F

Ian C

Hi Lance and Ollie,

I have read books 1 and 2. Really enjoyed them both. Must get hold of 3 for the Xmas break and then 4 when it comes out.

Cheers, Ian C

Mike and Sharon Walker

Sharon and I are back in sunny southern California after our long and wonderful time in France. First, let me say that Sharon and I agree that we were very lucky to have met you and had the pleasure of sharing an evening with you. Our only regret is that we didn’t have more time to spend together. But we will always remember you as part of a wonderful trip to Paris. Please let me extend a sincere invitation to visit with us whenever you are passing near Los Angeles. We only live an hour north of LAX and would love to see you again someday. I didn’t really get started on When the Tulips Bled until we came back to Paris after our time in Provence. But once we settled into our apartment I had more time to relax and read. Lance, I truly enjoyed the book and the story and wondered throughout how each character was linked to Ollie’s family. As I recall the story is based on some of the experiences of Ollie’s parents. Correct? I think it is so important to see WWII (or any war for that matter) at the personal level you offer in the book. In addition to portraying the real hardships experienced by the occupied Dutch you did a great job of portraying the great moral dilemmas faced by each and every citizen…and how some succeeded and some failed in this great test. The drama of real history is much more intense and revealing than any fiction. What a shame that so much is lost along with the lessons it teaches us. As I read the book I couldn’t help asking myself if I would have been bold enough to stand up to the Nazis? I’d like to think I’d be like Harry and join the underground…but when you have a family or loved ones to protect it’s not so easy…as you clearly show. As noted above, I really identified with Harry…I suppose that what one would expect of a person who spent his life in the military. I would love to hear more about the underground. By the way, you did a good job of telling the personal story while in the background you also showed the progress of the War. Well I guess the best review of an author is whether you’d recommend his book to a friend or read other works. I intend to do both, Lance. Thank You Very Much for the gift of the book and the pleasure of meeting you and Ollie. We hope you had a wonderful time after we parted…and especially that we may cross each other’s path again someday!

All the Best, Mike and Sharon Walker

John H

I happened to pick up this book at the LifeLine Bookfest this year. It looked and felt like it had never been read. I have never been much of a reader but somehow it seemed to grip me. Well, I just couldn’t put it down. I finally finished it yesterday. During the last chapter, I had to continually remove my spectacles to wipe them as I was weeping so much. A truly wonderful tale, Lance. I’m looking forward to reading your next novel.

Regards John H

Robin

We are visiting some Baltic ports by sea including Ijmuiden, (and a trip to Amsterdam), Tallinn and St Petersburg. The sea time gave me an opportunity to catch up on reading, not least When the Tulips Bled. Our tour guides spoke at length about the impact of occupation before, during and after WW2 so it was all highly relevant to your book. I had not appreciated the full horrors of that experience for the Dutch people. So it was all very moving. Thanks for a very good read… and there are some more to look forward to.

Best wishes, Robin

John N

“Thank you Lance for sending the 2 novels. I really enjoyed reading both. The experiences (..in Holland..) during the second world were, to say the least, harrowing and frightening. It shows that the human spirit can overcome a lot of grief and misery. I had no idea of the circumstances of the Dutch during the war, other than stories of the resistance fighters. The Germans certainly had a lot to answer for.
I was impressed with the amount of research needed for both books. It must have taken an enormous amount of time. I was grateful to learn, through your research, much more about the efforts of the Australian soldiers during the Middle East campaigns. I had only a small snapshot of the campaign, so thanks for giving me, and the other readers, a greater understanding of what our soldiers endured.”

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