To Spot a Leopard:

The latest novel by celebrated author Wilfred Summers.

*Now available on Amazon as a paperback book.

This is a link to Amazon: https://amzn.to/4m85JCa

Special Book review: To Spot a Leopard by Wilfred Summers.

Report by Don Hale.

https://donhaleblog.blogspot.com

About the Author.

Wilfred Summers (*pictured below), was born in Liverpool and as a two-year-old he was taken into the care of the National Children’s Home. Coincidentally with WWII he was cared for at Ballacloan, the NCH Home in Ramsey, Isle of Man.

On VJ Day he had just been sent to Nottingham for secondary education, and later moved to Highbury in London where he trained as an electrician. At 17 he was reunited with his mother and introduced to younger siblings; on his 21st birthday he joined the Royal Air Force and served in Singapore as an Aircraft Engineer.

However, the tropical heat adversely affected his health, and he was shipped back to Britain and received a medical discharge in 1955. After working as an electrician until his retirement,

Wilfred finally fulfilled his lifelong dream; exactly 70 years after his removal from the Isle of Man, he returned to live on the Island. He continues with writing, as well as drawing portraits, studying the Bible and learning to play the piano, and is also actively involved in the support of young people in Tanzania through education and medical care.

About the book - To Spot a Leopard.

Leonard Pardy, leader of the Leo-pards gang, having been offered the choice of a prison sentence or the Army, chooses the latter and soon settles into life at Larkhill Camp, and although his chance meeting with Ruth from Trowbridge develops into a storyline in civvies, his growing relationship with NAAFI girl Debra is soon vying for precedence.

Juggling the two becomes something of a challenge, with Debra’s colleague Harriet proving a reliable friend to both Lenny and Debra, and Ruth’s aunt Sally taking a similar role in relation to Lenny and her niece. Lenny’s past misdemeanours are dragged up again by Debra’s mother who does not believe that ‘a leopard can change its spots’, but his senior officers see him differently as he steps in to resolve potentially risky situations among his fellow-soldiers.

Several times when the story seems to be taking a fairly predictable direction, even army and NAAFI life develops unexpected twists when something intervenes to deflect it, keeping Lenny on his toes as he seeks to achieve the next ‘stripe’ in his goal of becoming an NCO.

Another time, the story apparently goes off at a tangent with the arrival in Trowbridge of Freddie, Sally’s missing ex-fiancé, so much a ‘lookalike’ that Lenny has been amusingly mistaken for him several times. Lenny often sings duets with Sally, unaware that this has also reminded her of Freddie.

Lenny’s artistic ability provides another view of his character as he takes the opportunity to draw not only the lady he is with, but others as well when the opportunity arises. Things become more complicated when he has married Debra and she is staying with his parents until their baby arrives; her colleague Harriet steps in to ‘keep Lenny company’, he draws her, and then paints her portrait, and as their relationship develops Debra seems to fade into the background.

The situation is resolved when Lenny and Debra’s baby son is born; in one of the extraordinary twists of fate, Debra is asked to feed a second baby whose mother has died in a car accident. Raymond, the baby’s father, whose injuries have confined him to a wheelchair, grows close to Debra at the same time as Lenny and Harriet are getting into a serious relationship.

Raymond’s parents are the owners of a ‘stately home’, and he works with his father who is an eminent lawyer. They invite or rather request Debra to go home with their grandson and stay there indefinitely to continue caring for them together, as if they were twins. The legal aspects of disentangling Debra from Lenny are handled so smoothly that neither of them even knows what is happening until the Decree Absolute lands on the doormat.

Meanwhile Lenny and Harriet have agreed that he should leave the Army and find a job in her hometown of Burnley, where his military experience and good recommendation from his Commanding Officer, soon provide him with the combined role of policeman and fireman. Harriet has already got a place at the nearby hospital to train as a nurse, and her parents provide a home until they have found a house to buy (with another amusing twist, provided by the greedy and deceptive character of the man who thinks he owns it).

The author having already sent Ruth packing with her doctor, provides Sally with the fulfilment of her long and lonely dream for Freddie, who has come back from Australia to make amends. He has become a highly successful solicitor and now sets out with her on a delightful voyage - ending with another twist that demonstrates Sally’s compassion and practical thoughtfulness.

It might seem improbable that the four main characters could come together in amity and even have a combined wedding, but this is the culmination of the story, and as they set out together on their honeymoon cruise, the reader is left with the feeling that lessons learned along the way could almost bring the last page to the traditional conclusion of ‘they all lived happily ever after’.