Keith Watson
Rough Justice

“Publication of ‘Rough Justice’ has given me a new lease of life, selling and marketing my book, spurred on by the professional support given from the outset by the design and production team and thereafter by my contact at Milton Keynes. In choosing Authorhouse, I was impressed with the flexibility of the support packages on offer that could be tailored to suit my budget and in terms of quality and value for money, I felt Authorhouse to be the best available.”

Background
Keith had always had a yearning to write and upon retirement wasted no time in getting started. His choice of subject was automatic, the two most impressionable years of his life. In 1954 he had been conscripted for two years National Service in the army and he wanted to record his experiences for the benefit of youth and an older audience, some of who reflect on their good times only! During his two years Keith served in Austria and Cyprus, an active posting.

Words flowed easily and within a year Keith had produced more than a hundred thousand words and a creative well from which in due course he would dip into for characters and events when writing ‘Rough Justice’. After the inevitable first time resistance by agents, he decided to learn more about his craft and signed up for a writing course at Oxford. He was given a short-story task. The brief was to write something about which he had passionate feelings.

A Turning Point
Keith chose the story of a barn fire that had taken place at Mattighofen, Austria in the winter of 1955 during manoeuvres with American forces. Four men died and eight received serious injuries. Keith had been present along with the rest of his Company. The tutor asked him to read his story to the group. He had relived the nightmare when writing of his escape and was forced to admit that reading it would affect him emotionally. His tutor elected to read it for him but she too found it distressing. She advised Keith to make this the main feature in his story, a pivotal moment.

Detailed research was essential but the task was more difficult than Keith had imagined. Following the fire there had been a military Court of Inquiry to determine the cause. Two files were held in the Public Record Office. One had been protected from disclosure under a thirty-year rule, the other for fifty years. He managed to obtain the first but it was a year or two, after writing to the War Office, before he was given clearance to obtain the second.

An officer had admitted placing a battle simulator outside the barn to wake the men and although the fire had started seconds after the explosion the Tribunal had ‘failed’ to discover the cause and the full details were withheld from the public. Keith’s discoveries, on studying the files, convinced him of what the men had always known. There had been a military cover-up.

The Plot
Keith now had two choices. He could write the facts, disclosing actual names in the form of a documentary or reveal the truth in a novel coupled with a fictional plot. He chose the latter using fictional but true to life characters with Lloyd Freeman telling the story in first person, re-producing actual statements made at the Tribunal whilst introducing a plot of what might have happened had the men known the full details at the time. His book ‘Rough Justice’ emerged. Tired of waiting for responses from would be publishers, Keith decided to self-publish with all the benefits involved and the freedom to sell and market his own book. 
 
Book Signings
Keith has enjoyed excellent press coverage and the willingness of bookshops to feature ‘Rough Justice’, with accelerating sales. During book signings many veterans have emerged who were present in Mattighofen in March 1955. Typically one man appeared with actual photographs of the fire and the burial ceremony at Klagenfurt. Then there appeared an ex soldier who announced he had been one of the last to escape followed by another who confirmed he had been through school and training with one of the men that died in the blaze. Latterly another veteran was the friend of a man, ignored by the Tribunal, who had driven one of the vehicles from the danger area. 

The Future
Now, four months after its launch, sales of ‘Rough Justice’ are increasing by the day with Keith enjoying himself marketing and selling his story. The documentary with actual names of men involved still exists, in anticipation that television or film producers might avail themselves of the details in the future.