FEATURE
A
St Helens man who wrote a
novel after being inspired
by the story of PLUTO - the
pipeline under the ocean
- has had the book re-printed as a
special edition to coincide with the 70th
anniversary of the D-Day Landings,
writes Peter White.
‘The Story of Four Islands’ by Crawford
Ivin has strong Isle of Wight connections
and is based on the intriguing tale of
PLUTO, which was developed to pump
petrol from these shores to mainland
Europe for the invading Allied Forces
after D-Day. Now there are suggestions
the novel could be made into a film, with
preliminary discussions taking place.
The story centres on a young Polish
man who is forced to work for the
Germans as part of their slave labour
programme in Jersey. He escapes to
nearby Alderney and then makes his
way to the Isle of Wight by rowing boat.
At the same time a young German
woman is tricked into spying on ‘PLUTO’
and the D-Day preparations on the
Isle of Wight, but falls in love with an
English officer. The plot, which embraces
Bermuda as the other one of the four
Islands, then moves forward to 1979
when an unidentified body is discovered
in Newport, and police uncover a tale of
intrigue, murder and unfulfilled love.
Crawford, who moved to the Island
28 years ago, said: “Originally I was just
looking for an idea for the book, and
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www.visitilife.com
PLUTO inspires
'Islands' novel
“As soon as I delved
into it I realised how
fantastic it was - years
before its time.”
thought of a spy here on the Island,
but I couldn’t find a running theme to
run through the story. Because I wasn’t
born here I started looking through the
history of the Island, and particularly
what happened during the Second
World War, and came across PLUTO,
which I had never heard of. But as soon
as I delved into it I realised how fantastic
it was - years before its time.
“Perhaps the most amazing about it
was that we were laying the pipeline
right under the ocean from Shanklin to
France, and the Germans didn’t know
anything about what we were doing.”
Research for the novel took Crawford
to the Channel Islands, but the main
character in the book is Valentine,
a name Crawford fell on when he
was walking past the Valentine Gray
memorial in Newport. The book, first
published in 2011, was about a year
in the writing, and now it has been
re-printed to coincide with this year’s
D-Day Landings 70th anniversary.
Crawford’s second novel, ‘The Art of
Deception’ is to be published shortly.