The author
‘I have no live rockets in my pockets’
Sean Connolly. Local Military author celebrates the e publication of his humorous, military memoirs. The three books are now for sale and can be found on Amazon and a website link at www.armynovels.com. The trilogy of British Army on the Rampage was the brain child of his wife (Naomi) and family friend, T.V and Film director at Dreamwolf Films, David Lewis Richardson. Both of which have offered an enormous amount of support throughout the two year journey in order for him to compile the books
The three Non-fiction books, Warning Order Belize, Muck ‘N’ Bullets and White Knuckle Airways have been a big success on the Harper Collins owned website, Authonomy where it has recently received no fewer than 237 brilliant reviews and is currently ranked at number 16 ahead of 20,000-40,000 books (and still climbing)..
The trilogy is aimed at any adults who like to smile and is not designed to be an ‘all action, hero’s and medals’ account. It is a fun book which portrays the day to day soldiering of a battery of artillery soldiers who were serving in the jungles of Belize, the day the Falklands war commenced in 1982.. Real life bravado, warts and all soldiering at its best. A little like Club 18-30 with guns….The stories will shock as well as amuse, but will leave you wanting more.
The fourth book which is now finished and due for release is Connolly’s first offering of Fiction titled ‘Gunners ‘N’ Grenades and although is full of the usual Connolly anecdotes does display some serious moments when Sean ‘Sledge’ Connolly is booted out of the British Army for gross misconduct but is dealt a lifeline when he is posted to Persto Troop. Another must read.
Armynovels.com has a big link to bemycharity.com which is the Help for Heroes and Sean pledges that a percentage of each sale will be donated to this page. Followers will be able to see this figure rise through the armynovels website or they can just visit the site and make a donation while they are there.
There are plans for another two Non-fiction books to be released before Christmas 2013 bringing the total to six.
My life and photos
I was born in Preston on the 5 October 1961. My first memories began when I was a young boy growing up in Southport, in the North West of England. For as far back as I can remember I wanted only to serve as a soldier in the British Army.
My childhood days were mainly spent fighting, either with my two brothers or with my ‘so called’ mates. We lived in a small house along with my two sisters and my father. He was a hard man both physically and mentally and an ex-Burma campaign soldier who took no prisoners. My father had to work full time to keep us, we would often be up to mischief which would lead to us committing regular offences. This was not good if you had MY father!
At the age of twelve, I joined army cadets, although I did have to tell a ‘little white lie’ because the official age for joining was thirteen. I attended Army cadets every Tuesday and Friday night without being found out until I needed written permission from my parents so I could fly in a Wessex helicopter. Then my true age was found out for which I subsequently received a ‘telling off’ from the sergeant. I continued in the cadets until I joined up, knowing that these years would prove to be so valuable in the early stages of my army career.
My life as a teenager was more dysfunctional than my younger life. Being the second youngest child my sisters had now grown up and left home. My eldest brother had gone to live with another relative, but, perhaps more significant, my mum had left too and some months were spent in foster care. This left me and my younger brother to do all the chores! By the time I joined the army at sixteen years old I was hard and unemotional. I had left school with hardly any academic qualifications, but I had achieved what I had set out to do all those years before.
I spent my last five weeks of freedom working in a ice-cream shop and further realising there was nothing for me in Southport, and so I went and signed on the dotted line to earn the Queen’s shilling.
On 12 September 1978, I joined Junior Leaders Regiment Royal Artillery in Nuneaton. This was the proudest day of my life. The transition into this ‘hard’ life was quite easy for me as I felt I had trained for it; not only in cadets, but in my life so far, thus I could not understand why so many new soldiers were getting upset about leaving home. I was thinking, this is what it’s all about, away from dad, living a cushy life. I was wrong!
I left Junior Leaders after one year and joined my regiment in Gutersloh, West Germany, where I served for a further two years before being posted to Colchester, Essex. Throughout my next years, we were sent to some far off and exotic places and some REAL dumps that would NEVER be talked about in books.
Then, at twenty years old my crew and our gun battery deployed to Belize, Central America, where I achieved the rank of bombadier and carried out the role of a gun commander, these duties normally held for a sergeant. Had it not been for my service in the army I dread to think how I may have ended up due to being so easily led, but after over a decade of service, I left feeling very proud of my achievements but also proud of what the British Army had done for me as a person.
My military service record reads as exemplary, although sometimes I wonder how!
It was announced in July 2011 that my regiment (The Lowland Gunners) would disband along with some of the Brigade that it supports. June 22 2012 would see the end of one of the finest regiments in the British Army.
Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth sent a letter to the regiment and its contents were read during a farewell function at Murrayfield on the evening of June 23 2012. She expressed her sincere thanks to all who had served in the regiment.
It is with pride and honour that I write this book for all the soldiers from my regiment who did or did not make it, and indeed for all the troops I had the privilege to serve with.
‘Ubique’ (Everywhere).
‘Quo Fas Et Gloria Ducunt’ (Where Right and Glory Lead
