True adventures of the 'Silver Greyhounds'
Published by Souvenir Press, London (1961)
Written with Geoffrey Kino
His first book was written because he was friends with an old Colonel who had been a "King's Messenger" and who told him stories of his time in the Service. Bird wrote it with another friend, Geoffrey Kino, who died a couple of years later from cancer.
nor gloom of night shall stay these
Couriers in the swift completion
of their appointed rounds."
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Published by Souvenir Press, London (1962)
(although there have been several editions over the years)
"On the morning of December 6th, 1917, two ships, one of them loaded with over 2,600 tons of high explosives, collided in Halifax harbour, Nova Scotia. In an instant, over one square mile of Halifax was erased along with scores of lives."
In an interview in 1997 Bird said: "With my novel The Town That Died I proved that an enormous explosion caused by two ships colliding in Nova Scotia, Canada, that wiped out Halifax and another town across the estuary, was not the fault of the man who was the pilot of the French ship going up the harbour who was claimed to be drunk. From that day nobody spoke to him: he was ostracised, they wouldn't even sell him anything. I went to Canada to do the research to prove that he wasn't drunk and I managed it. Within three months of that he died. Everybody had admitted to making a big mistake. I felt great about that."
His wife says:
"The book came from reading a small piece in a newspaper commemorating the disaster. He then wrote a letter to a number of newspapers asking for people's memories of the event. We had hundreds of letters and photographs, etc.
After forty years royalties are still being received from Canada, where the book is considered to be the definitive version of events and is used as a history book."
Donna Isnor e-mailed from Nova Scotia to say:
"Of all the books on the Halifax Explosion I have read, this is the best, I have read it several times. For six years I lived within walking distance from the worst hit area and my store overlooks the Bedford Basin. They have constructed a memorial on Fort Needham using all the bells from all the churches that were destroyed. There are still a few survivors, I have a lady who comes to my store who was 13 at the time and still remembers, she doesn't look a day over 70!!"
Published by Frederick Muller Ltd, London (1965)
Also published in America by Holt, Reinhart and Winston in 1964
BedazzledPublished by Sphere Books, London (1968)
A novel based on the screenplay by Peter Cook based on an original story by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore.
Bird was employed by Twentieth century Fox, London (on somebody's recommendation) to write features on the production of the film "Bedazzled" and a Swedish film called "Dr. Glas" which was directed by Mai Zetterling. The features would have been to advertise the films in magazines etc.
He went to Sweden and Denmark with Mai and attended the filming of "Bedazzled". His wife recalls him telling her that he didn't think the film would be good because the actors laughed at their own jokes too much. Presumably the novelisation followed from this connection.
