Robin's fundraiser for Medecins Sans Frontieres / Doctors Without Borders (MSF)
Robin Blake is raising money for Medecins Sans Frontieres / Doctors Without Borders (MSF)
Story
The stories in my collection War Time (2022) came from tales of my family during times of war and conflict. I have now made a new collection, Original Sins, in which events are closer at hand. Set during the 1950s and 1960s, their tagline is “eight stories about becoming a boy, and becoming a man”.
As with War Time, I am offering printed copies of Original Sins in return for donations to charity. I can also send out a tablet-readable pdf version to anyone who prefers to read like that.
THE BOOK
The narrator is Christopher Conroy, child of the War Time characters Joe Conroy and Monica Mooney. The stories he tells focus on events in his childhood at a Catholic boarding school, and then his teens at large, as he tries to figure out the meaning of friendship, religion, politics, poetry, sex and love.
But Christopher is only partly the subject of his own story: he also bumps into and ricochets off events as they happen around him. He is sometimes a little bruised, but as far as that is concerned the world is mostly indifferent.
THE CHARITY
My charity this time is Medecins Sans Frontières for their work in Gaza and even more in Sudan, where another even more catastrophic crisis has been unfolding which few are talking about it. MSF works with, but independently of, state actors and have been effective in providing essential healthcare even in the most hostile environments. They say about themselves
"Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is the world's leading medical humanitarian aid organisation.
We provide emergency assistance to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics and natural or man-made disasters, without discrimination and irrespective of race, religion, gender or political affiliation.
We work in over 70 countries and go to the places where others cannot or choose not to go."
Here is a link to their web page where there is more information:
https://msf.org.uk/how-we-spend-your-money
I would suggest a £15 donation, which you are welcome to make anonymously (I’m not checking up!). The books cost around £7.50 (not including postage). I would love the charity, with your help, to clear double what they would get if I myself simply gave the money to them.
If you would like a printed copy of Original Sins, please email me confirming your delivery address. If you would like a pdf for your e-reader just let me know.
Robin Blake
34 Ockendon Road
London N1 3NP