Professional Career
My professional career was spent as a general physician with a particular interest in occupational health. I was based mainly on Merseyside but I also worked in India and Nepal, and in Australia. I wrote a number of articles for medical journals while I was still in active practice but it was not until I retired after spending more than 45 years as a physician, mainly in the NHS, that I was able to concentrate on my writing.
I was the medical officer on a Himalayan climbing expedition in 1971, and in 1974 I carried out research into altitude sickness affecting climbers and trekkers on Everest, working on behalf of the Himalayan Rescue Association.
While I was a medical student in Liverpool in the sixties I also worked as a songwriter, getting to know many of the musicians and poets who were making the city famous at that time. This varied career has provided me with the background material for my books.
‘Aiming High – Overland To The Himalayas 1971′ and ‘It’s A Doc’s Life’ are both factual memoirs. The books ‘Blame It On The Beatles . . . And Bill Shankly’ and the linked prequel ‘Cunard Yanks’ are novels with a strong factual background.
Publications
‘Aiming High – Overland to the Himalayas 1971′
This book describes an overland journey from Liverpool, following ‘The Hippie Trail’ to India and the high peaks of the Himalayas, to tackle the unclimbed West Ridge of a peak called Indrasan (20,410 ft).
As well as indicating how different things were in 1971 the book also describes a personal journey. Before joining the expedition as medical officer the author had no experience at all of mountaineering. He had not even attempted the easy walk to the 3,560 foot summit of Snowdon, the highest peak in England and Wales.
‘A vivid account of the challenges and difficulties faced by climbers in the Himalayas. It was like being up there myself. Highly recommended.’
‘Blame It On The Beatles . . . And Bill Shankly’
Liverpool – 1960. The Beatles are back home from Germany. Long nights playing at a small club in the red-light district of Hamburg have turned them into the tightest rock ‘n’ roll outfit of all time.
The great Bill Shankly is in charge of Liverpool Football Club
A group of teenagers on Merseyside start to realise that everything is changing. By 1964 their city is being hailed as the centre of the teenage universe.
‘Absolutely brilliant story. Sad, uplifting, sorrowful and joyous – all within its pages. I haven’t enjoyed a book so much in ages.’
‘It’s A Doc’s Life – An A-Z of Medical Tales’
John Winter qualified as a doctor in 1969 from Liverpool University Medical School.
He was the medical officer on a climbing expedition to Indrasan in the Himalayas, after which he carried out research in Nepal into the then poorly-understood problem of altitude sickness which was claiming the lives of trekkers making their way to Everest Base Camp.
In 1974 he spent time as a GP in the Australian outback.
These varied experiences have provided the stories which appear in the book. Some will make the reader laugh. And some might be a little sad.
‘Extremely entertaining. I laughed out loud at several of the stories.’
‘Cunard Yanks’ A fascinating prequel to ‘Blame It On The Beatles … And Bill Shankly’.
It is 1954. Steve and Dave are looking for adventure. Their home town of Liverpool is scarred by war. New York is the future and it will soon be the richest city in the world. They need to see it and feel the excitement. They need to be there. They need to be Cunard Yanks.
Cunard Yanks were British men, mostly young, who worked on Cunard ships from the 1940s to the early 1960s on the transatlantic routes, mainly between Liverpool and New York.
American consumer goods, fashions and music which they brought to Liverpool gave the city a special awareness of popular American culture.
New York is their second home at a time when few British people go there. They see Buddy Holly play at the famous Apollo Theatre in Harlem and watch Pee Wee Marquette introduce Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie at Birdland.
They visit Jack Dempsey’s Bar and shake the great man’s hand. And catch the A-line to Coney Island before watching the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field.
American clothes and records, and gifts of stockings and perfume, are a hit with the girls back home, while American music inspires groups like The Beatles who play at the Cavern and the Casbah, as well as at the Kaiserkeller in Hamburg, before finally presenting their Merseybeat version of rock ‘n’ roll to the world.
‘A fascinating and entertaining novel that seamlessly combines historical fact and fiction. It introduces the reader to a unique period of post-WW2 Liverpool history – with a love story as well.’
FOR FULL DETAILS ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND ALL HIS BOOKS GO TO HIS WEBSITE
<blameitonthebeatles.com>