Music & War

A young soldier in Mostar visited me after his time on the front line, a Kalashnikov on one shoulder and a guitar on the other. He tapped the guitar and told me, ‘A much better weapon.’

Read more about music and war in Left Field

Spitting into the Sky

Comments on my Dylan Thomas play, performed at a professional reading at the DT Festival in 2004

John Yorke, Head of Drama, BBC TV

A powerful and beautifully written piece of theatre, and I have to say that your mastery of language isn't far off Thomas' himself. I thought you did an excellent job of interweaving between the man himself and the world of the plays and the poems, and adding the Marx Brothers into the brew lent a wonderfully surreal tone.

Terry Johnson, Director 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest' & playwright: 

I read ‘Spitting Into the Sky’ and I loved its imaginative spiralling. I loved the setting and the theatrical gifts it allows you to indulge. I love the idea of the Marx Brothers taking us through the play: I think the language is grand, and worthy of the man. I think it's very good.

Stephen Hearst, Former Controller BBC radio 3

It brings Dylan Thomas to life, warts and all, particularly his relationship to Caitlin. The word plays are good and true. A very original piece of work.. 

(drawing of Dylan Thomas by my friend Mervyn Levy. He was a childhood friend of the poet and, had he lived, we would have written this play together)

More on this and other plays in Left Field

Simple Writings

Financial Times on my first play "witty, bawdy, and as profound as anyone cares to consider it". Excerpts from this and other plays can be found in 'Left Field'.

Pete Townshend model guitar

What has Pete Townshend's 2.5" model of a Rickenbacker guitar got to do with me?

 The answer is in  

  Left Field 

Spitting into the Sky

I have written four plays -   'Simple Writings', 'Spitting into the Sky', 'The Old Master' and 'The Trainer' (with Anne Aylor).  Simple Writings is set during the German 30 Years War, Spitting into the Sky is about Dylan Thomas, 'The Old Master' is about crime in the art world and The Trainer is a political play written to raise money for the Gaza Music School, destroyed by the Israelis. You can read about the plays and why I wrote them in Left Field. 

“David Wilson and Anne Aylor’s play makes a surreal case for less government interference in our lives and an emotional plea for peace, love and understanding.”  Tim Pigott-Smith

trains & boats & planes

I slept in this

worked on this

and flew in this

Find out more here ...

Left Field

Stoppard, Margolyes and Eno have all bought this book

Tom Stoppard, Miriam Margolyes and Brian Eno have all bought their advance copies of "Left Field". Check out information on this memoir at Unbound and then why not join them?

Left Field: ships, protests, shoes and paintings

For those without twitter I have started posting elliptical messages and photos - all of which have relevance to my memoir. Hopefully, they will intrigue you enough to want to pledge at Unbound for 'Left Field'.

Left Field sales on the rise

Sales of Left Field have reached 70% which means production work will start soon. Hurry and get your copy here

Subdural haematoma in Huffington Post

New Huffington Post blog on subdural haematoma


http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/…/planet-zembar_b_6885600.h…

Vets for Peace and Left Field

http://veteransforpeace.org.uk/2015/david-wilson-to-support-vfp-uk-through-book-sales/


and the first vet (US) to buy the book is Sanford Kelson. Check out his article in Counterpunch here


http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/10/18/the-racket-of-war/

What the literary agents think about Left Field

“Your relationship with your elderly father is described in such beautiful style that it would not be out of place from a literary novel by an established and seasoned author. The same goes for your childhood years at boarding school ... The 'Balkan years', including the bits where you fall in love with a Croat and the adventures of the mobile bakery could be from a historical thriller. The whole 'War Child' section could be an expose about the problems and hidden lives of charities, especially when they become powerful.” 

These words from Ed Victor Agency, but, they added, you are not famous! 

http://unbound.co.uk/books/left-field

Brian Eno's Totem

Thanks to Brian Eno 'Left Field' sales % rising as they do in Enos Totem. Check that music here

https://vimeo.com/34240891

Help the book's % rise here

tinyurl.com/nflgk6h

Brian Eno & me in Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/david_wilson/brian-eno-me_b_6838680.html

Celebrating 50% income for 'Left Field' in two weeks

'Left Field' has now received 50% of pledges in only two weeks. This is amazing progress and thank you to everyone who has pre-bought my memoir and/or helped spread the word. http://unbound.co.uk/books/left-field

Whistleblowers at the Abbey

by Anthea Norman-Taylor

The other weekend I attended a retreat at Ampleforth Abbey, the Benedictine monastery near York, on the subject of ‘whistleblowers’. The idea came from Ian Foxley and Paul Moore.

Ian Foxley is a retired lieutenant colonel who was appointed by the MoD in 2010 to oversee a £2bn military communications project in Saudi Arabia. He had to flee after uncovering bribes paid to Saudi officials. Paul Moore was working at HBOS in 2004 as Head of Risk when he was dismissed for exposing their banking practices.

These two were joined by others from the NHS, the police, academic and legal worlds as well as business and banking. All of them had reported on wrongdoing in their workplace, only to find themselves bullied, shamed, then sacked. All had experienced havoc with their lives and serious mental distress

My own experience was as a trustee of War Child at the time when David Wilson ‘blew the whistle’. My fellow-trustees' reaction was the same as the MoD with Foxley and HBOS with Moore; ‘shoot the messenger'. David was sacked. I had no choice but to resign.

The Charity Commission acted in much the same way as the banks and other big organisations when faced with a whistleblower…rather than face the truth of the allegations, the issues are ignored and the ‘unruly element’ treated as toxic waste.

The Commission appointed a quorum of ‘professional trustees’ who had no real knowledge of the workings of this charity and its history and very little experience in charity work at all. There was no investigation despite questions in Parliament, Guardian editorials and the resignation of Pavarotti and the other patrons.

The charity survived the scandal but never returned to being the cutting-edge provider of essential services that it had been during the Bosnian war.

Everyone who came to Ampleforth had suffered mental health problems, financial disaster and exclusion from a further career in their area of professional competence. You will have to read 'Left Field' to find out what happened to David Wilson.

Whistleblowing is honest dissent not disloyal subversion, and should always be supported and applauded.

Ian Foxley has formed a support group at:

www.wbuk.org

and read David's book

http://unbound.co.uk/books/left-field

Veterans for Peace

Queen & Country

I have been a friend of ex-SAS trooper, Ben Griffin, ever since I attended the High Court to witness his being silenced by the British government for telling the truth about his experiences in Iraq. Today he is an ambulanceman and a leading member of Veterans for Peace UK. He reminds me of ex-soldiers I know from the Bosnian war & who I write about in "Left Field'. Like them he has become a truth-teller, whose voice needs to be heard if we are ever to get over our addiction to war.

The following is a condensed version of Ben's talk at the Oxford Union.

“The idea of fighting for Queen and Country is held by those who have never fought, by those who have no experience of the suffering that war inflicts, by those who gain the most from war - politicians, generals, the arms industry and the media and its armchair hussars.

Who is doing the fighting? A well-trained and professional force whose collective desire is to go to war, any war. This force does not fight for Queen and Country. It fights when and where it is told to fight.

If you believe the media you might imagine that the fighting consists of bayonet charges, lone hand grenade assaults on enemy positions or modern-day Spitfire pilots scrambling to some noble action. In my experience the reality is a lot darker. It involves long periods of waiting punctuated by unforeseen moments of extreme violence, having your legs blown off by an IED, a supposed ally shooting holes in your chest, dying in a helicopter crash, burning to death in a transport plane, being beaten to death by an angry mob, setting up checkpoints in a country you have occupied, disrupting the lives of the people and then killing them when they approach too quickly or fail to stop in time, raiding people’s houses with explosives, detaining young males and handing them over to be tortured, killing people from the safety of a helicopter or drone control room, using words like Haji, Raghead, Sand Nigger, Chogie, Argie, Paddy, Gook, Chink, Jap. Kraut, Hun.

And with all this going on, they cultivate the myth of the soldier as hero. That you should support 'our boys and girls'. That to stop the slaughter would be sacrilege to those heroes that have died.

I am a human being and my allegiance is not to Queen and Country but to the whole of humanity. I no longer accept the lies which perpetuate war. I no longer accept that violence can lead to peace. Never again will I be complicit in the killing and torture of my brothers and sisters. Never again will I accept the vile religion of Patriotism. I refuse to pull on that rancid uniform. I refuse to fight for Queen and Country.”

If 'Left Field' goes into profit, and with your help it will, I'll hand over a portion of them to Veterans for Peace

http://veteransforpeace.org.uk

If we don't make a profit, I will send them some money anyway!

http://unbound.co.uk/books/left-field

From war to art (Mostar)

or how a shell can fall on a shop or be in one - Dan Cruickshank's short film about Mostar - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdwsExGXm8A See it here and read about it here… http://unbound.co.uk/books/left-field

What they are saying about Left Field

Brian Eno- "This is an excellent and inspiring book. David's stubborn and yet self-effacing commitment to his ideals carried him through many daunting situations, and his sense of humour kept him able to see the funny side."

Sir Tom Stoppard- "David Wilson has lived a life and a half … the broken world needed people like David then; it still does and always will."

Dorothy Byrne, Head of Channel 4 TV News and Documentaries - "What a life this man has led!"

Mandla Langa, author of The Lost Colours of the Chameleon, and winner of 2009 Commonwealth Prize - "David Wilson is a national treasure,"

David Hencke, former Guardian Westminster correspondent and part of Exaro team, presently exposing paedophilia in high places - "This is the work of a determined guy who is prepared to expose fraud and injustice wherever he finds it."

Eugene Skeef, "A must-read by my comrade and brother David Wilson. Please spread the word and encourage your friends to buy and read David's memoir.”

Orhan Maslo (Oha), "One of the key people of my life has finished his book and it will soon be out. There is a chapter that describes the times we spent together. What good times we had while giving spirit to the Pavarotti Music Centre. This was after my orphanage times and steered me to who I am and what I do today. Thank you David"

Manuela Beste, the first person to read draft MS, “This is surely going to be your core readership - the 1960's generation who grew up with you, agitated like you, still hold true to these struggles like you and today's new generation of angry, frustrated, hopeful young people who are organising for a better and fairer world ...I found the book interesting, moving, thought-provoking, instructive. It thoroughly held my attention .. I wish I could think in visual metaphors like you."

Sebastian Balfour, Emeritus Professor, LSE,

"A vivid account of a life fought for justice, full

of indignation and tenderness."

***********

Click this link to see video, read more about Left Field & pledge support http://unbound.co.uk/books/left-field

Click this link to see video interview with Brian Eno. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwslPeklwTo