Thetford Park

Halifax to Liverpool on a coal burning ship stuffed with ammo. What could possibly go wrong?

By: John Bedard, Pierre Bedard

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Thetford Park is a historical fictional account of a Canadian coal burning merchantman, loaded with ammo, sailing from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Liverpool, England during WWII. Written by John and Pierre Bedard, the book gives a different perspective to Das Boot, from above the waves instead of below them. John Bedard served in the Canadian Merchant Marine from 1942 to 1950 and the Canadian Armed Forces from 1950 to 1953. Working for Immigration Canada, he was stationed at most of the Canadian port of entries, including the Port of Montreal, before immigrating to the US in 1964. Convincing his wife, Therese to move to Southern California in 1964, he bided his time as a janitor in a juice factory, a women's shoe salesman, and a grocery store security guard before proudly becoming an American citizen and immediately joining the US Customs Service. John retired as a Senior Inspector after 20 years, including a 2.5 year tour in Laos as an advisor starting in 1972. At 17, Pierre published an essay in the San Diego Reader. At 19, he translated Victor Hugo's Hernani into English, an historically significant play taught in many drama departments today. His first job after graduating from UC San Diego was editing the TOPGUN manual. Moving to the Bay Area in the early '80s he went on to get an MBA ('89) and JD ('09) from Santa Clara University while working as a sales and business development executive at Sun Microsystems, Adobe, and IBM. This book was a collaboration. John laid out the characters and basic setting. Pierre researched, provided a timeline, and filled in the gaps. This is John's second book. You'll find Border Guards available on Amazon. This is Pierre's second book. His translation and adaptation of Victor Hugo's play, Hernani, has been used by many university drama department students. It is also available on Amazon.