I met Valentine a year or so ago and we have become firm friends ever since. We were talking one day and he casually mentioned that his Great Uncle Bertie had been the only senior officer on the Titanic to survive the sinking. Funnily enough my family are linked to the Titanic also in that my great grandpa Graham helped to build it at Harland and Wolff in Belfast.
Valentine was then asked to write a book about his family and their connection with this lost ship.
I had no idea about the conspiracies that abound the story of the Titanic so after hearing Valentine discuss this on telly I was very keen to read his book and see what it was all about.
It’s funny how within families you have the secrets that are not to be told. Valentine was
My Great Grandpa Graham with Dad and Aunty Pat
aware from a very early age that there were such ghosts within his families closets, having literally found them in his grandma’s cupboard. He tried over the years to talk to his family, mainly his great aunt and grandmother but the doors were firmly closed. You know how it is with secrets… they just make you want to know more… So over his lifetime he has delved into the depths as it were and learnt a lot about the Titanic, through talking with close relatives and also doing a heck of a lot of research. So Valentine’s book is really the only book you will ever need to read in your quest to know the story as well as one can hope.
I for one was not aware of the notion that the Titanic was in fact not the Titanic at all but the Olympic. Valentine puts forth an amazing amount of evidence to support this claim; I will not spoil the book for you by telling you what they are.
So within the pages of this book you get to know the players, what they were like, and the errors that led to the demise of the ship and so many aboard it.
It’s such a shocking story, was it all about greed, what did they really hit that cold night and how much did Uncle Bertie know?
This book is a film waiting to happen and also a damn good read.
