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Spotty showersHeritage
Fact or fiction - for you to decide
19/12/2003
AN Anglo-Indian writer has realised his ambition to publish his
first book at the age of 85.
Grandfather Alan Goodwin, of Smedley Road, Cheetham, has spent most
of his life dreaming of becoming a writer while he worked to raise
his family after arriving in Britain from India in 1949.
Now his paperback 'The Astal Pact' has been released by publishers
Pegasus after he spent just one month penning the thoughts he has
been mulling over in his mind for years.
Alan said: "I started writing it one year ago. It only took me one
month to write it because it was all there already in my mind
waiting to come out.
"I sent it off to the publishers and now they have published it. I
don't know if it will take off, we will have to wait and
see."
Alan, a father of three, was born in Poona in India to EuroAsian
parents and brought up in the Christian tradition at an English
speaking school among largely Hindu neighbours during the
1930s.
He met his wife Rita in India and came to Britain in 1949 where,
despite his education, he could find employment only as a labourer
until he landed a job as a sheet metal fabricator and worked in the
industry until his retirement at 64.
Elements of his life are echoed in his book that focuses on a young
Poona man known to the reader only as Al who dabble in the
supernatural to summon up his 'astral twin'
The naive youth seizes an opportunity to increase his strength and
overcome bullies who have dogged his life but, unable to control
the strange forces, his life takes a darker route and, like Dorian
Grey, or Dr Jeckyll, Al is the last to realise how his experiences
have changed him.
Despite some similarities between the author and the story's main
character, Alan leaves it to the reader to decide what is truth and
what is fiction.
He said: "For many years I have wanted to write and many people
have encouraged me to. I have written about this subject because I
find it an interesting subject.
"If I said that this book was based on my experience some people
would not believe it and if I said it wasn't based on my experience
people would ask why I am writing about something I don't know
about. I will leave it to the person who reads the book to be the
judge."
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