Sowerbutt's Fortune

“One more point, Sowerbutt, I must mention. I don’t know whether you saw it or not but one of those steel drums contained forged pound notes of various denominations. We calculate a drum of that size would hold many thousands of forged pounds, something we have always feared being used by the Jerries to try and wreck our economy.

“The police say the notes must have been destroyed in the raid. When they searched the site, there were no banknotes or burnt paper. Piles of ash, but that could have been anything. Not surprising as many of the drums  were blown to smithereens, the place was like an inferno.

“However, if there were to be any left, if any forged notes were to surface, I don’t want them to make a nuisance of themselves. It would give the old fuddy-duddies in Threadneedle Street a heart attack if they appeared on the open market. And we don’t want that, do we?”

Sowerbutt blew out some cigar smoke and smiled innocently: “Wish we had known about the manna from heaven, Mr Bracken. Couple of notes in a nice frame would have made an interesting memento over the bar at home.” amazon.co.uk/Colour-Lemon-Surrender-1940-ebook/dp/B008USR7FA 

Sowerbutt's Plot

The long-retired writer for the East London Pioneer, who still has the notebook from his interview in the early 1960s with Jimmy Sowerbutt about the Battle of Cable Street, said: "Jimmy was a cunning bastard. He was determined to get local families re-housed as quickly as possible after the war. He used to say they had suffered enough.
"The trouble was the Reds were taking control of the building unions and were calling the shots on the reconstruction sites. Jimmy found out that many of the housing contracts had a timeline. The contract was void if the flats and houses were not completed within a certain time.
"The bricks came from the London Brick Company in Bedfordshire where Jimmy had a lot of contacts. Many Italian workers there who had sympathy for the pre-war English Blackshirts. Jimmy spread cash around and some charm and the supply of bricks to Poplar slowed to a snail's pace. The sites, controlled by the Reds, lost their contracts and Jimmy took them over. A few months later, the building work was completed and the local families were rehoused."
  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Lemon-Surrender-1940-ebook/dp/B008USR7FA

Sowerbutt's Help

The long-retired writer for the East London Pioneer, who still has the notebook from his interview in the early 1960s with Jimmy Sowerbutt about the Battle of Cable Street, said: "Jimmy was a legend in the East End. He helped loads of families during the war and in the hard post-war years. With the Attlee government, the Reds tried taking over the building unions with all the construction going on. Jimmy wouldn't have it, sending his boys into the building sites time and time again. Lots of fights, probably a few bodies in The River. In the end, he took over most of the sites in Poplar and surrounds. Got things moving and families housed.
"He disappeared in the fifties, never said where. When we heard he was back, we were very keen to interview him about Cable Street - 25 years on. He was always shy of publicity, but I think some of his old mates persuaded him to set the record straight. He came into our office in High Bob and some of the things he told us made our hair stand on end."
 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Lemon-Surrender-1940-ebook/dp/B008USR7FA

Sowerbutt's Farewell

Nobody was around to hear the swift dispatch of the burly sentry standing guard next to a stack of bricks. A sledgehammer punch to the right kidney, left hand clamped tightly over the open mouth, the juddering head jerked back and the razor-sharp girl guide knife across the throat. An ugly gurgling noise and Sowerbutt slowly lowered the shaking body to the ground.

 He was less than 20 feet away from the hut, a faint light flickering through the covered windows, open in the warm evening. Nothing stirred, but he thought he could hear snoring, then what sounded like a bottle being banged down on a table. amazon.co.uk/Colour-Lemon-Surrender-1940-ebook/dp/B008USR7FA 

 

Sowerbutt's Eyes

Nero slipped into the docks a couple of hours earlier, flitting like a ghost past stacks of unloaded crates, huge cranes jutting into the afternoon sky and groups of noisy dockers. Nobody spotted him. Sowerbutt knew from long experience that the best shadows lose their physical presence and blend naturally with their surroundings. Like chameleons. 
Nero had watched wealthy houses in London for days without being noticed, even by the servants. He had kept an eye on large larders south of The River being loaded with black market goods without being spotted, even by the sharp-eyed criminals. He had watched secret police preparations to break up Blackshirt rallies in East London and had never once been caught.
 amazon.co.uk/Colour-Lemon-Surrender-1940-ebook/dp/B008USR7FA 

 

Sowerbutt's Road

Churchill grunted: “I shall remember your kind offers of assistance, Mr Sowerbutt, I shall remember them.

"We have a long and hard road ahead of us to final victory.

"I cannot foretell the future, however, your country may well require your special talents again. I, however, most certainly will.” http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Lemon-Surrender-1940-ebook/dp/B008USR7FA

Sowerbutt's Confession

The long-retired writer for the East London Pioneer still has the notebook from his interview in the early 1960s with Jimmy Sowerbutt about the Battle of Cable Street and other events on Sunday, October 4, 1936.
This was not published.
"The Stepney Reds were a thorn in my side for years. On the Sunday we are talking about the lads and I settled a lot of scores. We had friends in the police and the extent of the casualties the Reds took never saw the light of day.
"One of their prominent members was a teacher called McGaskie, a nasty piece of work, always trying to stick his nose in my business. Eventually, I dealt with him or rather the police did. But that's another story." http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Lemon-Surrender-1940-ebook/dp/B008USR7FA

Sowerbutt's Story

The East London Pioneer, a pre-war Blackshirt paper, made a brief re-appearance in the early 1960s. One edition featured reminiscences about the Battle of Cable Street and other events on Sunday, October 4, 1936. It is the only known public record of Jimmy Sowerbutt. No copies of the resurrected Pioneer are held by public archives or libraries. A handful of yellowing copies are in the possession of private individuals.
Here is what Sowerbutt had to say.
"The lads and I in my I-Squad section were run off our feet. Fights all over the place in Whitechapel and Shadwell as the march was on and off and on again and off. We were working hard to protect our side when I got word some Reds were looting near my mate, Jack Shakes' shop, God rest his soul. We doubled down there and put a cordon around the shop, the stoppers were nowhere to be seen. The Reds had thrown rotten vegetables and mud at the shop when we arrived. After cracking a few ribs and blacking some eyes, the Red thugs backed off. I remember shouting, 'This shop is off-limits, you expletive.'
"Later, we went up to Shoreditch where the Reds were starting what they called a Victory march after persuading the stoppers to call off the Cable Street lot. Well, we weren't going to allow any Victory nonsense. Several of the I-Squad sections got stuck in. I remember seeing WO, another dear departed friend and a great fighter, in the thick of it.
"The lads and I had coshes and we used them. The Reds were trying to take over our streets and it was not on. Some were local boys, most were outsiders. We look after our own in my manor. We always have."  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Lemon-Surrender-1940-ebook/dp/B008USR7FA

Sowerbutt's File

Detective-Sergeant Le Clay did not like the sound of James Sowerbutt, a thug to use the Indian Army vernacular. A dangerous but careful thug, according to the restricted Metropolitan Police file that Le Clay had  read from cover to cover.
Apart from details of suspected, but unproven, criminal activities and former membership of the banned Blackshirts, the slim beige file contained a copy of a document issued under the Government’s recent Emergency Powers Defence Act, exempting the said person from military call-up as required by the National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. The top of the document was stamped “Unsuitable, Security Risk”. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Lemon-Surrender-1940-ebook/dp/B008USR7FA

Sowerbutt's Question

"This special lady been keeping us company for long?"
The slight military man looked sheepish. "Frankly, no idea how the lady entered the country or when she arrived here. The borders are supposed to be locked up. Perhaps a Jerry U-boat somewhere off the Irish coast, though the ferry operators and the cargo-ship captains running across the Irish Sea have no recollection of seeing her and she's a good-looker whom you wouldn't forget.
"Can't see her parachuting in - too risky. Perhaps she slipped through in the chaos of Dunkirk, but there are no records of any civilian women entering the country. Of course, there wouldn't be. We are sure some of the French, particularly the officers, who were rescued brought with them wives or other people's wives who have now gone to ground." http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Lemon-Surrender-1940-ebook/dp/B008USR7FA 

Sowerbutt's Competition

"One more thing, Mr Sowerbutt. Mr Bracken was most insistent that I pass on some information to you. A woman is involved in all of this. She has used various names over the years, but is best known as Rosetta. She would make a stimulating companion. A good-looking woman and an expert with knife, garrotte and explosives and, to quote one alleged witness, she can shoot the balls off a fly at a hundred paces.
"She was involved in the deaths of Jose Calvo Sotelo and Adreu Nin Perez if those names mean anything to you from the Spanish war." http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Lemon-Surrender-1940-ebook/dp/B008USR7FA

Sowerbutt's Nightmare

The Spanish said they were gun-running, Mr Sowerbutt. Flying some shooters in on aeroplanes, can you imagine, and dropping them down to the ground with those parachutes you see at the flicks. That’s what I was told me to say to you. They want the men to help out with catching all the shooters.
The room had grown suddenly quiet, the noise from the busy High Street fading into the background.
“This is way over our heads, Jimmy,” Polly whispered. “You can’t do stuff like that when there’s a war on, even I know that. What are these guns going to be used for, shooting our boys? Isn't that what they call treason?” http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Lemon-Surrender-1940-ebook/dp/B008USR7FA

Sowerbutt's Trip

Swansea is your starting point, I think. Find the documents, Sowerbutt, and deliver them to me and there’s another £5,000 waiting for you. Same deal as before - small notes, not in any sequence. And my word they are not forged. The last lot were genuine, as I’m sure you have checked.
Went to Swansea once in the ’35 election, never again. Nowhere there to get a decent drink. Molten metal everywhere, smoke and soot and that Mumbles place. That’s all I can remember about it. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Lemon-Surrender-1940-ebook/dp/B008USR7FA

Sowerbutt's Weapons

After slipping a couple of coins to a station porter to take care of their luggage, Sowerbutt concentrated his attention on the bustling crowds at the station. He had crossed the path of the Spanish lads, whoever they were, and a busy railway station well away from his home patch was the ideal spot to retaliate.
Some of the Family carried shooters, too noisy and messy in his book. He was well equipped with his trusty clasp-knife, a Ka-bar hunting knife, that he had bought from a down-on-his-luck American sailor, strapped to his leg as well as his well-used cosh. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Lemon-Surrender-1940-ebook/dp/B008USR7FA

Sowerbutt's Lady

“I shall worry about them, Jimmy, and you can’t stop me. What if something happens to one of my girls or someone in our Family when the bombs go off? Explosions in the street without any warning when one of my girls is out shopping. Blown up, blood everywhere, it’s too horrible for words. I saw shocking pictures about the Jerry bombings in Rotterdam on the Pathe News at the flicks. I’d never forgive myself if something happened, never,” Polly shivered.
“I’m with our girls night and day, our regulars and the part-timers. I couldn’t bear it if they were hurt.” She whispered: “What if they get caught up in the shooting when the Jerries come. Might be out for a nice walk and a tank parks. All these stories you hear about the Jerries, it’s terrible.”
Sowerbutt smiled but said nothing to the attractive redhead as the cab pulled up in Eastbourne Terrace outside the grey monolith of Paddington Station. Sowerbutt half-listened, the tough lady who ran the busy docklands brothel with a rod of iron was nervous about leaving her familiar metropolis. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Lemon-Surrender-1940-ebook/dp/B008USR7FA

Sowerbutt's Fights

WO, as the old guardsman was known, said: "You look after your lads and lasses like a treat, Jimmy. That’s why you get such loyalty. You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone, anyone at all, on our patch who would do the dirty on you, old son.”
WO Barker remembered Sowerbutt in the many fights with the Stepney Reds, head down, fists like pistons, resorting to cosh and knife when necessary. After a while, the Red strong-arm boys simply avoided him, he was too much trouble. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Lemon-Surrender-1940-ebook/dp/B008USR7FA

Sowerbutt's Generosity

“You are a good man, Jimmy,” smiled WO Barker as the tough former guardsman was known the length and breadth of the dockside suburbs. “I knew you were doing well. The odd bit of stuff that comes my way is much appreciated. We all appreciate your help, son, the local families like. Every man jack of us. Makes life a bit easier in these tough times. Sit yourself down and I’ll pour some tea.”
WO Barker laughed. “We had some fun together, Jimmy, with those Reds, the scraps we used to get into.”
“Until you got that knife in your back, WO. Thank God, it missed your kidney. Mabel and I paced up and down for hours while you were in surgery at Mile End.”
WO Barker had headed one of the Blackshirt I Squad sections in the East End, protecting meetings from would-be troublemakers and sometimes paying lightning visits to disrupt the gatherings of political rivals. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Lemon-Surrender-1940-ebook/dp/B008USR7FA

Sowerbutt's Testimonial

“What I do know, Prime Minister, is that our friend, the loyal brothel-keeper, has been pursuing the Spanish connection; a couple of his people have been killed, probably by thugs the Spanish are employing. What is that devious dictator Franco up to, I wonder? ”
A balloon of brandy in his hand, Churchill sunk into a comfortable chair to one side of the Cabinet table. “The British Empire spans every continent of the globe. It is the greatest empire ever known to man. Never in the course of human history has so much depended on a single purveyor of flesh, no matter how attractive.”  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Lemon-Surrender-1940-ebook/dp/B008USR7FA

Sowerbutt's Centimetres

The dapper little man with brilliantined black hair nodded. “Just as I thought,” he said, checking the tape-measure in his slender hands. “You haven’t changed a centimetre. Not since I first measured you all those years ago. You keep yourself very fit. Not like many of my clients who put on a centimetre a year, then blame me for getting my accurate measurements wrong. Me, who has been measuring bodies, thick and thin, for 30 years or more. Oy Vey.”
Sowerbutt smiled. “You are such a flatterer, Jack. That’s why you are doing so well and your competitors are hanging up their scissors. I know your secret, you’ve got different tape-measures for different waistlines."  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Lemon-Surrender-1940-ebook/dp/B008USR7FA

Sowerbutt's Friend

Sowerbutt knew that One-Line worried about being spotted in the street as an army deserter. But his papers and disguise were good. Twice a week, Bernie the barber made sure One-Line’s hair and his old-fashioned moustache stayed black. His horn-rim glasses were another prop, if not popular with their new owner.
Sowerbutt organised weekly lessons with Madame Komarovski to change One-Line’s gait, knowing people were recognised by the way they move. “You think of everything, guv,” the big man said after his first lesson. But Sowerbutt knew the best protection for One-Line was the loyalty of the streets. Few of the thousands of deserters and call-up dodgers in wartime Britain were ever caught and punished. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Lemon-Surrender-1940-ebook/dp/B008USR7FA

Sowerbutt's Gloom

Nothing can stop these Jerry bombers, the cities are at their mercy. The Air Ministry people, I was reading in the papers, say there are going to be thousands of dead.
Somebody told me thousands of cardboard coffins have been made. Some have already been stored at the new Poplar Baths. Closed for repairs, the sign says, so we don’t panic. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Lemon-Surrender-1940-ebook/dp/B008USR7FA

Sowerbutt's Departure

"The time is approaching fast for us to pick up sticks and head for Ireland. These increasing bombing raids on our convoys in the Channel are practice runs for the Jerries. They are working out their tactics. The attacks are almost every day, according to the papers, and there will have been plenty of casualties, not that they say what’s going on.
“London will be next on the list. If Winnie doesn’t surrender soon, we’ll be bombed out of existence." http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Lemon-Surrender-1940-ebook/dp/B008USR7FA

Sowerbutt's Compassion

Sowerbutt nodded discreetly at Maggie, the attractive young manageress of the tea rooms, who helped out in Polly’s business occasionally to make ends meet for her large family.
Her soldier boyfriend had been captured by Belgian collaborators and handed over to the advancing Wehrmacht during the BEF’s chaotic retreat from Belgium. Some of the German divisions paid the equivalent of five pounds a head for every captured Allied soldier. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Lemon-Surrender-1940-ebook/dp/B008USR7FA

Sowerbutt's Treat

“Don’t tell me that I never take you out, Polly,” Sowerbutt smiled as the attractive red-head poured cups of tea for them both in the Refreshment Rooms in High Bob, a stone’s throw from St Matthias Church, the suburb’s oldest surviving church.
Polly poked her tongue out as she passed him a side plate stacked with thick slices of home-made honey cake. “No more of your favourite iced cakes. They’re about to stop making them for the war effort, according to the newspapers." http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Lemon-Surrender-1940-ebook/dp/B008USR7FA

Sowerbutt's Decision

“The bastard’s a practised liar,” Sowerbutt said quietly. “We either kill him or not,” Their faces expressionless, One-Line and Tipper waited for their boss’s orders.
Sowerbutt shook his head. “I am probably going soft, but it is just not worth the trouble of disposing of his body. I don’t like taking risks, but this one isn’t worth a light. Even if he did it, I want the organ-grinder, not the monkey.” http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Lemon-Surrender-1940-ebook/dp/B008USR7FA

Sowerbutt's Team

“Spaghetti is your right-hand man, Jimmy. Such a good operator, what would we do without him? I was always very fond of his Dad, a real charmer. Somebody was saying Spaghetti is getting sweet on Pop’s pretty daughter. I like a nice wedding,” Polly said, watching her man carefully.
“You and your gossip,” Sowerbutt laughed.  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Lemon-Surrender-1940-ebook/dp/B008USR7FA 

Sowerbutt's Trade

"It’s the Millwall, Mr Sowerbutt sir. A South African tramp, which ran the Jerry U-boats all the way up from Walvis Bay, has just tied up. Tins of fish, thousands of them, crateful after crateful. Pilchards, the labels say. Real tasty, they are. Remember them in the shops before the war? My mate has been put on to do the unloading.
"I promised to get you some good deals, didn’t I, Mr Sowerbutt? Fish will go quick-smart and for a good price."
Sowerbutt said: "Find out from the ship’s mate what is in it for us. You negotiate something, the best deal, eh? And tell your docker friend we’ll pay cash for whatever he and his gang can disappear on the side." http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Lemon-Surrender-1940-ebook/dp/B008USR7FA

Sowerbutt's Party

I’ll have something special organised at Waterloo for the heist, as our American friends say. I’ll be there  and the missus as well, Mr Sowerbutt. I assume you won’t be available to come along and enjoy the fun and games?

Thanks, Dipper, everything sounds under control. Much as I would love to join your party, I’ll be establishing a cast-iron alibi somewhere. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Lemon-Surrender-1940-ebook/dp/B008USR7FA

Sowerbutt's Luck

What puzzled the sergeant was how Sowerbutt and his former Blackshirt cronies managed to avoid the trip to the Isle of Man and the other emergency internment camps, hurriedly set up after the outbreak of war to detain enemy aliens and sympathisers.
But that was the superintendent’s call, not his. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Lemon-Surrender-1940-ebook/dp/B008USR7FA

Sowerbutt's Sorrow

Not one for displaying emotion in front of his men, Sowerbutt, who topped the six-foot mark, stretched up to put his arm round One-Line’s shoulders. “Disappear before the stoppers turn up, my friend. No need to tempt fate. Nothing we can do for our dear Shiny now, but he’ll have the best funeral that Poplar has seen in years.”
Words were always a challenge for One-Line. “Those bastard Reds from Stepney, guv?”
“Maybe, maybe not, One-Line,” said Sowerbutt. “On my wife’s grave, someone will pay.”
Descending the narrow stairs, he put his hands to his face. The first member of the Family was lying dead. All of a sudden, the face, which some women called handsome in a rugged way, looked care-worn. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Lemon-Surrender-1940-ebook/dp/B008USR7FA

Sowerbutt's Knife

He was never without his girl guide clasp-knife, one of the thousands mass-produced by Sheffield cutlery manufacturers for Lord Baden-Powell’s youth movement over the years. Sowerbutt, who had spent a short spell as a sheet metal worker at the Westwood heavy engineering factory in Millwall, had drilled easy-to-flick locks onto the blade and the needle-point stabbing spike, but otherwise there was nothing remarkable about his favourite work tool.
The knife, stamped girl guide in capital letters along its metal case, had escaped countless searches over the years to the fatal cost of some of the searchers. Sowerbutt had palmed it, hidden it, secreted it and pocketed it, but his faithful servant of steel had never once been accused of murder and mayhem. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Lemon-Surrender-1940-ebook/dp/B008USR7FA

Sowerbutt's Fortune

One more point, Sowerbutt. One of those steel drums was said to contain forged pound notes of various denominations. We calculate a drum of that size would hold many thousands of forged pounds, something we have always feared being used by the Jerries to try and wreck our economy. Rosetta had a bundle of the fivers hidden on her which we’ve confiscated, of course.
“The police say the rest of the notes must have been destroyed in the raid. When they searched the site, there were no banknotes or burnt paper. Piles of ash, but that could have been anything. 
“However, if there were to be any left, if any forged notes were to surface, I don’t want them to make a nuisance of themselves. It would give the old fuddy-duddies in Threadneedle Street a heart attack if they appeared on the open market. Understood?” http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Lemon-Surrender-1940-ebook/dp/B008USR7FA

Sowerbutt's Match

Polly’s gray eyes flashed, her voice acquiring a hard edge: “Did we agree that we are partners, or did I misunderstand your promise? I didn’t get on very well at my school in Poplar, but I don’t remember having had a problem with the English language before I met you, James.”
Sowerbutt shivered at her icy tone. He had faced down hardened killers in Spain and the worst thugs in the East End, but he was no match for his red-haired lady.
“We’ve a few things to talk about, I agree, Polly.” http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Lemon-Surrender-1940-ebook/dp/B008USR7FA

Sowerbutt's Homecoming

Upstairs in their hotel room, Polly protested: “You’re squeezing the breath out of me, Jimmy. You were only away for a couple of days. Successful trip?”
Sowerbutt looked worried for a moment, then smiled. “I thought I’d lost you, Polly. The Nazis on the loose out there are not escaped prisoners. That’s being put about in the town to stop any panic by the public. In fact, they are ruthless killers, fanatics. Been a lot happening.” http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Lemon-Surrender-1940-ebook/dp/B008USR7FA

Sowerbutt's Fist

Bending down, Sowerbutt slammed his fist into Garcia’s face, the force of the blow breaking the Spaniard’s panic-stricken hold. The semi-conscious man disappeared from sight through the door, the body slamming twice against the outside of the carriage as it fell. A loud scream quickly faded away as the train sped closer to the town of Newport. “Nothing personal,” said Sowerbutt quietly. Stretching out to heave the banging carriage door closed, he could see Garcia’s body was just a smudge on the side of the track, already many yards behind. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Lemon-Surrender-1940-ebook/dp/B008USR7FA

Sowerbutt's Journey

"I’m just an odd-job man from the Smoke with nothing to hide.”
Sowerbutt unbuttoned his leather jacket and opened it wide to show his snowy-white shirt, a little the worse for wear. A smile lit up Rosetta’s face, her green eyes flashing. “You have expensive tastes and a good sense of humour, senor.”
Squeals of brakes and repeated hisses of steam heralded the arrival of the London train, on time to the minute. Sowerbutt watched in admiration as the line of chocolate and cream coaches and the large green steam engine backed their way carefully along the platform, amid a flurry of guards and the waving of red and green flags. The first-class carriage came to a halt exactly opposite the painted marks on the platform. At least, the experienced engine-driver and his well-trained mates knew what they were doing, Sowerbutt reflected. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Lemon-Surrender-1940-ebook/dp/B008USR7FA

Sowerbutt's Interview

Rosetta laughed. “I like you, senor, you have a good sense of humour. We will work well together when we trust each other, no? I notice the men, they defer to you.”
The attractive woman pushed the flat of her hand into his muscled stomach. “A hard man, eh? I know my men, senor. I look into their souls. You are tough, confident and capable, I think.”
She looked over her shoulder at the Spaniards. “Not like these idiots, pollo.”
A large closed flick-knife appeared in Rosetta’s slender hand which she tapped on Sowerbutt’s chest. She whispered: “One day I will tell you stories, Jaime. I have survived a long time in a difficult business because I know my men. If I ever make a mistake, I kill them. A sharp knife always speaks the truth." http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Lemon-Surrender-1940-ebook/dp/B008USR7FA

Sowerbutt's Past 2

"Who are you, senor?” asked the attractive raven-haired woman, her green eyes flashing. “Jimmy or James, ma’am, whichever you prefer. I was called in to help out some old mates with some shifting, carrying and protection, they said. Funny old place Wales, now we’re finally here after twisting and turning along the goat tracks. Never been out of the Smoke before, myself, apart from a few day-trips to the seaside,” Sowerbutt grinned.

“Never been out of the Smoke, you say senor?” She stepped very close to Sowerbutt and studied his lean, handsome face, staring into his piercing eyes. “I have a good eye and a good memory for the faces. On Generalissimo Franco’s desk in the grand palace in Salamanca was a photograph framed in gold. One of his favourites. The famous General Moscardo, the hero of Alcazar, as well as his beautiful daughter who was with him in the bloody siege, and her husband, who was an English, I remember. A handsome man, he looked like you. You are a tall handsome man, no?" http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Lemon-Surrender-1940-ebook/dp/B008USR7FA

Sowerbutt's War

The longest nights he had spent in Casa de Campo Park and the dirty streets of Carabanchel waiting to slip unseen through the badly-guarded Republican lines. Plenty of Socialist and union dignitaries to eliminate in the crowded Republican-held city. The never-ending night he had spent frozen against the wall of a deserted building in Carabanchel while three young idiots from the Anarchist Brigade sat on the dusty road alongside and drank themselves silly with a liberated case of strong Russian vodka. When the final chorus was sung and they passed out, he had been sorely tempted to make their sleep eternal with his trusty clasp-knife. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Lemon-Surrender-1940-ebook/dp/B008USR7FA