{"id":39053,"date":"2025-08-01T09:40:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T09:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/39053\/"},"modified":"2025-08-01T09:40:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T09:40:08","slug":"blackbird-story-takes-flight-for-first-time-octogenarian-author","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/39053\/","title":{"rendered":"Blackbird story takes flight for first time octogenarian author"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>First time author, Brian Blanckley has illustrated his book Fly Fly Blackbird<\/p>\n

Bird watcher Brian Blanckley didn\u2019t have to look far for inspiration when he launched his writing career.<\/p>\n

As he observed a blackbird in the garden of his Sunderland home carrying a beak full of nesting material, he hit on the idea of a children\u2019s book which followed the story of how the parent birds raised their family.<\/p>\n

Now at the age of 83, Brian is celebrating the publication of his book Fly, Fly Blackbird.<\/p>\n

\u201cLater the young blackbirds would appear on my fence waiting to be fed,\u201d says Brian. \u201cThis started me thinking about the life of a blackbird and, after some research, the story came together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having been a member of a Sunderland art club for 15 years, Brian illustrated the book himself, with the cover featuring the bird against the backdrop of one of his favourite locations, Penshaw Monument.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI suppose it\u2019s a bit late to have a bestseller but I am delighted and over the moon to see the book published.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have always had an interest in books, literature and drawing from an early age, and I love the song of the blackbird.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Brian and his book<\/p>\n

\u201cAround 40 years ago I entered a short story competition in a writers\u2019 magazine. I never won but all the entrants got a Scottish \u00a35 note! I never thought that in my eighties, my dream of having a book published would come true.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I started writing Fly, Fly Blackbird the aim was for children to learn more about a part of nature that they see every day, that of our common garden birds,\u201d added Brian, who worked for 22 years at the Rowntree and later Nestl\u00e9 factory in Fawdon in Newcastle.<\/p>\n

Brian is now working on ideas for more books featuring different garden bird species and Sunderland landmarks such as Wearmouth Bridge and Fulwell Mill.<\/p>\n

Fly, Fly Blackbird is available at \u00a34.99 from Waterstones, Amazon, Beamish Museum, To The Moon and Back, Tynemouth, and from www.summerhillbooks.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"First time author, Brian Blanckley has illustrated his book Fly Fly Blackbird Bird watcher Brian Blanckley didn\u2019t have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[353,49,48,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-39053","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}