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Eric Charles Bartholomew started writing when he reached 60 years old (it's never too late). Having worked in the city of London and abroad for over forty years, plus five years lecturing in his chosen profession, the part he enjoyed most was the travel. Luckily for him, his wife Mary enjoyed it too!
His first trip covered India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives. They both fell in love with India returning many times when work commitments allowed. Eric and Mary eventually ended up living there for several years. Since then they have also travelled to Eqypt, Africa, Thailand, America and all over Europe. On the way they have met many wonderful travellers sharing highs and lows and swapping stories over a few glasses of arrack feni.
Eric and Mary have been married for over forty years and have three children and two grandchildren. They now live on a narrow boat with no fixed abode going wherever life takes them.
Distant Horizons is a work of fiction that was inspired by Eric Bartholomew’s knowledge and  personal experience of Goa, where he lived for several years. He had visited many times and returned to live there because he loved the country and the people – best reasons to be anywhere. He was fascinated by the lives and customs of the fishermen and their families, and full of admiration for their relationship with the sea and their ability to withstand hardship. In his words, this book is ‘a tale of the sea as well as humanity’ because he writes of people who ‘lived by it, slept by it, fed from it, laughed, loved and died by it’.
Out of this background rose Distant Horizons – the story of two families, brought together by the sea and united by love. Unexpected bounty from the sea changes their lives, bringing wealth and security, but through one man’s greed the sea exacts a price and that brings tragedy and destruction.
LINK TO ERIC'S BLOG SITE
Excerpt
Pedro lay asleep at the bottom of the boat, half in water, his head resting on one of the bottom ribs. The gentle rocking to and fro made his head move from side to side. The sun, not yet above the gunnels, left him in shade for the moment. Breathing evenly, his chest rose and fell, making the water in the vessel slosh gently backwards and forwards. Complete exhaustion had shut him down for the last hour or so. His dream, nestling against his mother’s breast, was safe for the moment.He woke from his slumbers, wrenching his head from his mother’s bosom as reality rapidly took hold. Shuddering, he realised his body and face were half submerged in sea water at the bottom of the boat. He jerked up, remembered where he was and peered over the gunnels of the boat, looking around in all directions. Undulating waves and a flat horizon of never-ending sea surrounded him. Recalling the horrors of the night before, he speculated about what had become of his father. He knew that he himself could not have survived had Joe not cut the netting away from the tiller. With the optimism of youth came hope, with hope came strength, with strength came determination. Pedro knew his father could possibly be dead by now but he had to try and find him, and the vast Arabian Sea did not deter him. Pointing the prow of the boat in what he prayed was the opposite direction, he set a sea-bleached sail. Catching a strong breeze, the boat jolted forward, a slight bow wave forming as it cut through the water.
Eric has now published his second title:
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Angels and Dirty Faces
Eric C. Bartholomew
Category: Non-fiction, Memoir
Publication Date: May 31, 2009
ISBN: 9781906546069
Pub: Kavanagh Tipping Publishing
Price: £8.99
Spanning the years of the mid-1950s in the East End of London, this memoir brims over with both pathos and humour. Eric Bartholomew was an irrepressible boy, educated more by life on the street than any school curriculum. He learned the tricks of survival necessary for families living in post war poverty, in which every member was required to pull their weight in the ongoing struggle. This account of his childhood is sad, hilarious, and outrageously human, all at the same time. It evokes a world rapidly being consigned to history in a fast changing world, and every reader who was alive at that time, will find their own memories being triggered by long gone images, expressions and experiences once common to all. It is a gem of a book.
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