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Tales with Tony Andy Gregory , Secretary, Birmingham - West Midlands Branch It’s often been said that ‘Everyone has a book in them’. Some people write one, some a few and some publish lots. Birmingham’s own Tony Granger has written eighteen books so far. On the evening of Tuesday 17th November, IPA members were treated to an online Zoom event where Tony read some of the short-stories from his latest book, titled Blondie Requited .

BSAP 1973 Rhodesia

Tony Granger

S ince the 2020 Lockdown , all branch meetings moved online, and we discussed ways to offer something different to branch members. Branch Vice-Chair Simon Hensley said “The power of story-telling is part of Policing culture; those tales spun over a hastily eaten meal or during a long night on a cold Watch unites different Policing generations. We believe, now more than ever, the need to connect with our younger members and capturing our ‘tales’ for future generations should be one of the priorities for the IPA”. Section UK Vice-President Sean Hannigan organised the Zoom facility for us, and we threw open the invitation to other IPA members. Despite some of the invitations going out just 24 hours before the event, we attracted 56 members from across the globe. Tony Granger joined the IPA in 1974 while serving with the British South African Police in Rhodesia. He joined the Section UK in 2014 and has become an active member of the Birmingham, West Midlands Branch, as well as a regular contributor to the IPA Writers Special Interest Group (SIG). In 2018/19 he was instrumental

in leading the campaign to allow former BSAP officers and staff that served in South Africa and Rhodesia to join IPA Section UK. The Tales with Tony evening included several short stories from his books Blondie’s Revenge and Blondie Requited; including a particularly funny tale of when he was summoned to see his commanding officer, when he wanted to marry his sweetheart. His Application to Marry form had been doctored by his colleagues, and his future wife’s name had been replaced by a notorious member of the infamous Baader- Meinhof Terrorist Group. If you want to know what happened, you will have to order his books. At the end of the Zoom session our guests were able to ask Tony questions about his service with the BSAP, and how he gathered the ideas together for his books. As well as over a dozen of our own branch members, the online guests included Christopher Mannino (Chief of Park Forest Police, Chicago) who Andy first met at Gimborn in 2006, Justin Timm (Chief of Williams Bay Police, Wisconsin), Steven Boers (Cape Town), June Pettitt (Birmingham Branch but now living in Cape

Town), Angie Pare (Durban, South Africa), Fran Stiff (Johannesburg), Eleni Cotton (Malawi & Greece), Dr Marelize Swart (Cape Town), Henryk Ellert (Portugal), Judy Kerswell (Zimbabwe), Laura from France, Sean Hannigan from Frankfurt and members from across the length and breadth of the UK. The youngest participant Alex Bidolak, an officer with Greater Manchester Police, has been an IPA member for 5 years (Rochdale & District Branch). Alex gave some feedback saying “I think this is a fantastic concept, where a guest speaker shares their policing experiences and could be taken forward in the future, where different Regions can tune in and listen to members stories from far and wide. What a great evening and idea, all from the comfort of your own home!” Branch Chair Tom Chisholm said “We are extremely grateful to Tony for sharing some of his fantastic stories from his time with the BSAP, and look forward to inviting you all to our next events”.

POLICE WORLD Vol 66 No.2, 2021

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