Prince Charles explains 'pebble theatre'.
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PEBBLE
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Don Pierson [right] explains how a young Prince Charles made a request to join the Radio London fan club. |
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Prince Charles explains 'pebble theatre'.
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PEBBLE
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Don Pierson [right] explains how a young Prince Charles made a request to join the Radio London fan club. |
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Paul Rusling's book begins with this paragraph:
"To those who've ever been involved with Radio Caroline, it can be infuriating to read some of the mythical stories and far-fetched fantasies, apocryphal misrepresentations or just complete works of fiction about the station." Paul Rusling then makes the following promise to his readers: "This book adheres to authenticated aspects of the story of Caroline. It's a story of intrigue and mystery, one that Caroline team [sic] have had to deliberately mask in places to protect those who didn't want their identities , nor the reasons for the radio station, to be exposed." Then Paul Rusling makes a claim which not only lacks grammatical sense, it also contradicts his earlier claim about writing an authentic story: "In Caroline's first three phases, (at sea, from 1964 to 1991) staff often had to act covertly" [sic] A reader might well ask: "What three phases?" None are given, but a strange bit of information then follows in parenthesis: "at sea, from 1964 to 1991". However, Radio Caroline had a very short life from 1964 to 1967, and its original ship-base known as the mv Fredericia and later renamed Caroline, was then scrapped. Clearly the author begins with deceit because this is not a book about Radio Caroline (1964-1967), but a rambling recital of all manner of undertakings that called themselves 'Radio Caroline'. At the close of his introduction the author writes: " There are several different versions of the story of how Radio Caroline started, the who, where and when details are often confused, and sometimes it's been done deliberately. The story unfolded here is as close to the truth as possible and is based on the corroborated word [sic] of those who were actually there." Since Paul Rusling, the author, began his shambolic essay with a lie about how long Radio Caroline existed, he used another lie to back up his first lie. This story is not anywhere close to being "the truth", as you will learn during the course of this book review.
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On the front cover is a ship, but it is not the mv Caroline.
It is not even the mv Mi Amigo. It is a ship that was used by a group in the 1980s who called themselves 'Radio Caroline'. Paul Rusling on his back cover writes about a "Caroline team" and that "Caroline survived it all and continues today", but this statement is indeed untrue. Radio Caroline not only ceased to exist after August 14, 1967, but the mv Caroline went to the scrap yard. On page 408, Paul Rusling quotes Ronan O'Rahilly: "They are pirating our name just to win a licence we don't want. Never, not ever! Any on land licence would have to be over my grave." Yet on the back cover of his book, Paul Rusling has written: "Now restricted to UK waters, Radio Caroline has developed a network of outlets on AM, DAB and online." That is another way of saying that 'Radio Caroline' is fully licenced. Surely this is a contraction in terms of what Radio Caroline means as a name? How can Paul Rusling wave a flag in the name of Ronan O'Rahilly for a fully licenced station called 'Radio Caroline'? Surely that is a contradiction in terms of his own book? There never was a "Caroline team" as Rusling calls it, that is his own invention, and since Ronan O'Rahilly is not yet in the grave, clearly Ronan O'Rahilly disowns both Paul's book and the licenced station that calls itself 'Radio Caroline'. Because the question of what exactly the title of this book is has been brought to my attention, I went in search of its self-publisher's explanation.
What I found was very confusing indeed. The official Facebook page links directly to a site by Paul Rusling and it uses a lower-case "b", and on the site by Paul Rusling, he has changed the lower-case "b" to an upper-case "B" on the covers of the book. But, on that same site he still uses the lower-case "b" which is why I have added logos from both Rusling's Facebook page and his own promotion page to the masthead of my page. Rusling's supporters immediately decided that I am someone else who also referred to the lower-case usage, but I can't allow that allegation to stand. This is my book review. If you want to know why both upper-case and lower-case is used in the title, ask Paul Rusling! Well, no sooner had I begun this Review when someone observed what they thought was an error on my part in referring to the name of the book I am reviewing!
Their comment did cause me to take another look at the stock image of the cover at the top of this page, and then another look at the cover of the book in front of me - the one I am reviewing. They are not the same! On the stock cover image there is a capital "B" for Bible, but on the cover of the book in front of me, there is a lower case "b" for bible. Thank you 'Book Lover' for pointing this out to me because I will be reviewing the edition I have and not someone else's edition. In one sense this will make my job of reviewing this book a little more difficult because if the author/publisher/self-trader is going to tamper with the actual title of the book, how can anyone know from moment-to-moment what else has been tampered with in different print runs on demand? If you notice something so blatantly manipulated in this book, please let me know. Caroline This book was self-published on demand by the author during 2019 and it claims to be a book that "should be on the bookshelf and read often by every follower of the world's most famous offshore radio station." (A quotation from the back cover of the softcover version of the book which was also published as a hardcover version.)
Because I am engaged in media studies and because this is a new publication about a offbeat subject about a form of alternative media which now claims to have turned mainstream, I made this book the first one for my review blog - especially since my first name is Caroline! 'The Radio Caroline bible' in its softcover format contains 508 printed pages, not counting the covers, and so it will take time to review. Consequently, I will attempt to go through the pages on a time permitting basis and add my analysis in segments. Therefore, if this is a topic of interest to you, please return from time-to-time and see how my review is progressing. Caroline |
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