Graham Sclater
Graham Sclater studied at the Phoenix Arts Centre in Exeter, where he concentrated on creative writing for the screen and television. His key interests are teleplays and screenplays as well as developing and writing original drama series’ for television. Those recently completed include “Street life “– Buskers” “Love Shack” and a pilot “The Other Side of the Tracks.” David Penn, Adam Faith, John Altman and a number of actors, directors and producers have favourably reviewed his work and several television companies including Central Television have taken options on other television series. Born in Exeter in 1947, he spent several years living and playing Hammond organ in various groups in Germany and Scandinavia during the sixties. He returned to England full time in the early seventies where he worked as a session musician in many of the London studios. An accomplished songwriter and musician, Graham has been featured in a number of arts and musical programmes and has performed and recorded with artists including Jimi Hendrix, Fats Domino, Ritchie Blackmore, James Taylor, Elton John and numerous name musicians. Many of his songs have won competitions in France, Spain, Gibraltar and Japan as well as being recorded by well-known artists.
His fifth novel "Love Shack" was published by Tabitha Books on 23 October 2015 - http://www.tabithabooks.webs.com
All his other titles including "Ticket to Ride" "We're gonna be famous" "Too big to Cry" & "Hatred is the key" are also available from Tabitha Books or as ebooks from Kindle or Kobo.
Music
Tabitha Music Limited, the independent music publishing company formed by Graham in 1975, has a catalogue of more than five hundred songs and has published hit records in much of Europe and the Far East including Japan. The Company’s songs have been featured in films, television programmes, documentaries and have been released on major record labels including EMI, CBS and Phonogram. Keen on artist management he successfully signed groups to CBS, EMI and other worldwide labels.
He has spent many years combining his production and publishing work with the management of his artists. Recent signings to the company are songwriters David Cooler, Bryce Wastney, Noreen Crayton, Brad Tucker, King Errisson, Anjali Ray, David Lessing, Stephen Wrench, the Jake Green Band and many more,
Graham has produced records in varying styles as diverse as punk, folk, country, heavy rock and MOR in studios as far afield as Trinidad and Jamaica. Many of these productions were released on the Tabitha Record label in the Benelux and Spain and major or independent labels around the World. Graham’s production credits have resulted in a number of hit records by many artists.
Novel
Graham's first novel “Ticket to Ride” set in Hamburg during the 1960’s,was published by Flame Books in 2006 and is now working on his fourth novel “Love Shack” based in the east end of London and the red light district of Amsterdam. Active in developing a number of projects at any one time, Graham is a prolific writer who carefully researches his subject before reaching for the PC. Many of his projects involve music and his background enables him to combine a mix of original music and script. Graham enjoys working in many arenas, using first-hand experience of as many subjects as possible, often spending time researching overseas. He is at home writing and developing any concept. He has an understanding of budgeting, the logistics of production, location, and direction.
"We're gonna be famous," Graham's first children's novella was published in 2009 by Tabitha Books and his first historical novel "Hatred is the key," was published in 2009 by Tabitha Books and is available from Amazon.com in the USA and Tabitha books for the rest of the world from Tabitha Books. http://www.tabithabooks.webs.com
Published Works
Graham, having recently completed the screenplay Hatred is the Key - optioned with a New York Film Company, and World Turning. He and is currently working on the titles: I Put a Spell on you and his first children’s novel. He has recently been signed by agent Jef Peace to represent his screenplays in the USA and the novel "Ticket to Ride" was originally published by Flame Books and is now reissued by Tabitha Books.
In 2009 Graham's second novel "We're gonna be famous" was published by Tabitha Books and in 2010 his this novel an historical piece, "Hatred is the key." His fifth novel "Love Shack" published in October 2015 is set in the red light district of Amsterdam was published in the USA and is available from Amazon.com and in the UK from Tabitha Books.
An updated version of Graham's first novel "Ticket to Ride" is now reissued and available now with the other books from http://www.tabithabooks.webs.com
"Too Big To Cry" Graham's fourth novel was published 31 May 2013.
"Love Shack" his fifth novel was published on 23 October 2015
"More than a Woman" was published in July 2016
PRESS RELEASE
Hatred is the key - ISBN 978-0-9563977-2-0'
The latest novel by Graham SclaterDevon based author and scriptwriter Graham Sclater had his first novel “Ticket to Ride” published in 2006 and since then he has written a number of scripts and two further novels. The most recent “Hatred is the key” is an historical novel set in the notorious Dartmoor Prison and covers the war between America and England (often referred to as the second war of independence).
Whilst “Hatred is the key” is a work of fiction it is based on fact and follows a number of American prisoners-of-war captured after a vicious sea battle off the east coast of America and about their time spent in Dartmoor depot. The war ended in December 1814 but they remained incarcerated during what was the harshest winter for more than a century with little food and the knowledge that they should have been freed. The diabolical conditions, overcrowding, disease, near starvation and boiling anger caused the prisoners to riot and, on the fateful day of 6th April 1815, following the anonymous instruction to fire on the prisoners, a massacre took place. Soon after the massacre the prison was closed for many years until it reopened as the infamous high securityDartmoor prison.
“Hatred is the key” was published in America in November 2009 and to date has received massive interest from the media and is selling very well.In May 2010 the novel was launched here in the UK at Dartmoor Prison Museum andsince then Graham has been busy, carrying out readings, book signings and visiting television and radio stations around the UK promoting the book. He has already appeared on a number of BBC local radio stations including Sue Marchant show which covers, BBC Northamptonshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Three Counties Radio .Graham has already been asked to speak at a number of events in America in 2012 to mark the double centenary of the War 1812.Graham says, “When I first heard about these events in 2002 I couldn’t stop thinking about it and began researching this period. The more I learned the deeper I delved until I started writing the screenplay. As it progressed I felt I had to write the book. It’s taken me seven years but I feel it was well worth the effort.”
FROM THE REVIEWS:
“Compulsive reading”
“It felt like I was actually there”
“A story waiting to be told”
“There is something about Graham’s style I really like”
“The writing has a lively feel and moves along at a good pace”
American book review by Patty Inglish May 2010
Hatred is the Key - American/English Holocaust
Hatred is the Key by author Graham Sclater ISBN 978-0956397713
Published in the USA and available from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk in the UK or copies signed by the author from the publisher Tabitha Books. http://www.tabithabooks.webs.com
Reviewer rating ♦♦♦♦♦ out of 5Author Graham Sclater
Enlightenment and heartfelt thanks to the Internet for connecting writers with audiences in the far flung corners of the world! The web led me to UK author Graham Sclater and Hatred is the Key, an unexpected and brilliant focus on the hatred rampant between early 19th Century English and Americans in the War of 1812-1814. The book presents a vividly painted world that surrounds and centers on England’s Dartmoor Depot and its sinister role for America during the devastating war in the Atlantic Ocean. Hatred extended to American-held slaves,freedmen, Métis, Caribbean Islanders, and First Nation/Native Americans that became involved as well. Irrational hatred crisscrossed among these sub-groups, as you will read first hand in this novel. Even with at least one ancestor in the Siege of Fort Pitt and the later War of 1812-1814, I knew little of the latter war and less of Dartmoor Depot or Dartmoor prison as it was later renamed.
Thanks to Graham Sclater, I now know the rest of the story - the consequences on a personal level to all sides in the War of 1812.Dartmoor Depot took a bloody grasp of over 10,000 American prisoners of war: sailors and merchants; freemen, slaves and children. Those operating the prison were likely not much better off, particularly in the toll such operations took on these individuals mentally, inhabiting their nightmares for decades in the style those infesting the VietNam conflict. Not only this, but Dartmoor was built to house only 3,000 prisoners, the overcrowding horrific in its consequences. Usual American histories of the War of 1812 show nothing of the Dartmoor Depot.Perhaps USA did not wish to publicize the plight of their period POW'S, but it was a Holocaust of proportions that Cecil B. DeMille would have depicted with fervor and drawn many crowds. Picasso’s Guernica in its exquisite agonies does not do the image of Dartmoor justice. Graham Sclater does so in Hatred is the Key.Hatred is the Key is a work of engaging historical fiction that accurately portrays theaftermath of American losses on the Atlantic Ocean to the English fleet. Much like springtime television cliffhangers, one cannot stop “watching” this story, continuing to read and re-read the novel at great length.
This was likely the wish of many captains like Captain Sleep and Captain Coombes in the seagoing war, but neither received their shared wish. Captain Shortland as well had no such reward in his assignment as commander of Dartmoor Depot, a UK facility still operating, full of the ghostly habitations of three years and over 10,000 tortured men and boys. The images of capture, the forced march to the prison, and the tumultuous hell on the inside will keep you awake at night, just as they did the prisoners you will meet in the story. Fictional, but hard-wired in fact, the characters and the events will burn into your memory.
Read this book and you will know what most Americans and most people do not yet know about the horrors of the War of 1812-1814. Yet, despite circumstances, these prisoners held onto their personalities and many, to solid character as well. Read and you will see victory in the middle of hell. and dragging a cart through the. Dartmoor Prison is an active men's prison in Princetown, on Dartmoor in Devon,England. Designed by Andrew A. Alexander, it was built from 1806 - 1809 with high stone walls of cold granite. Currently owned by the Duchy of Cornwall and run through Her Majesty's Prison Service, it was built to house 3,000 (French) men captured by Britain in the Napoleonic Wars, but held many more from 1812 - 1815. It held over triple its limit, in squalor and the coldest winter in a hundred years. Disease, cold, hunger, lack of sanitation, and a horde of insects and other vermin killed many and nearly drove the rest mad. Prolonged solitary confinement and "disappearing" also took a toll of lives and sanity - even months after the war ended. English restrictions and interference imposed against US-French trade resulted in an American declaration of war on Canada and Britain in June, 1812. This filled the North Atlantic and the Great Lakes with battles in which America lost many ships and men who were jailed in Dartmoor Depot. After the war was over in December 1814, Americans were held overtime in Dartmoor prison and tortured, until finally they gained their release after an uprising on April 6, 1815, in which many more of them were killed.Neither British nor Americans lost or gained any lands in this war and they lost many lives as well as their peace of mind and parts of their souls; but the First Nations and Native Americans lost everything, including lands promised by the British. Freed slaves and some American boys as young as 13 or younger lost their lives in the prison as well.It was much like the Holocaust of a later war.
Recommended Reading:
This novel describes seagoing battles in the Atlantic in realistic fashion and fills out characters into people to whom we as readers can relate. Captains Coombes, Hawkins,Sleep, and Shortland are so substantial and similar - all British stock or descendant - that one can forget which side they’re on. Members of the opposing navy crews and the civilians are likable or despicable by turns. It seems that real people die as many of them succumb to wounds or disease. This all makes a greater case against war and prejudice in the end. American slaves are as intelligent as their master, the sharp merchant Dylan Chipp, and more likable, though Chipp is immensely entertaining as he is taken among POW's from the ship on which he was just a passenger. Just as entertaining are scenes in the local farmers' and merchants’ market days in the prison yard with a variety of products and services obtainable from sellers' stalls. The gypsy-type healers have a stall as well and dispense medicine and cures, but tend to whoever summons them in an emergency. They are held in seemingly low esteem, but are well patronized by prisoners, the British military, dignitaries, and others. Physical suffering trumps prejudicial hatred. Additional scenes portray relationships of all sorts between Americans and British people and are particularly poignant and memorable. Aside from some good lessons in the uselessness of hatred, Mr. Sclater’s book provides some good history of the prison, its construction and operation, the war, and the aftermath for all sides.
"It is a good read and would make a riveting film" -- Patty Inglish © 2010
TICKET TO RIDE
Musician, Producer, Music Publisher and now Novelist, Graham Sclater looks back at the music scene in the 60's .
Graham Sclater ’s first novel "Ticket to Ride" reveals the actuality of living and playing in Hamburg during the 1960’s. An accomplished songwriter and musician, Graham has been featured in a number of arts and musical programmes and has performed and recorded with artists including Jimi Hendrix, Fats Domino, Ritchie Blackmore, James Taylor, Elton John and numerous ’name’ musicians. Many of his songs have won international competitions and have been recorded by well known artists. In 1975 Graham formed Tabitha Music Limited, an independent music publishing company with a catalogue of more than five hundred songs, with hit records published across Europe and the Far East, including Japan. The Company’s songs have been featured in films, television programmes, documentaries and have been released on major record labels including EMI, CBS and Phonogram.
Contact
39 Cordery Road Exeter England EX2 9DJ
- email: graham@tabithamusic.com