I've been to a couple of events at the Warrington Peace Centre in the last week – it's the home of the Tim Parry Jonathan Ball Foundation For Peace. My first contact with the organisation happened last October, directly as a result of an article about Scars Beneath The Skin in the Warrington Guardian.
Last Wednesday was the Annual General Meeting. In addition to the usual order of business, short talks were given by a number of children from a school in Leeds, where the Peace Centre has been involved in conflict resolution issues.
Another talk was given by a former solider whose goal is to return to the place in Northern Ireland where his best friend was killed. This need to go back to the scene of a traumatic event is one of the themes in 'Scars Beneath The Skin.' It was a little haunting to hear a real person talking in the way I've imagined for my own fictional character, Karl Dresner.
On Sunday there was a Media Awareness Day, led by Claire White and John Kabia of the Peace Centre. For someone like me, with a book to promote, media involvement can only be a plus and my knowledge of how the media works isn't much more than zero. So, I felt I learned some valuable lessons. The other people on the course came from a mix of backgrounds and many of them had a lot more experience of the media than myself. There is a definite sense of camaraderie amongst strangers who've had a shared experience of conflict, regardless of whether that's direct experience or bereavement as a result of conflict.
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