Blessed is He

Towards the end of the American Civil War in 1863, Sergeant Zack Jackson, a black Confederate soldier, wakes up after a battle in Virginia, in a field full of his dead comrades, and he sees a hand held up in the middle of all the dead bodies. On further investigation, a dying soldier hands him a wallet, with both monies, his home address, and the deeds of a map of his claim to a gold mine. He requests, with his dying wish, that Zack takes the contents to his wife and family and to eventually go and find the gold mine. He then dies of his wounds. Zack, also gravely wounded, sets off to find the dead soldier’s home but collapses along the way. Isaac, a young 11-year-old Jewish boy, finds him and manages to take him back to his parents’ home where they look after him until he is fully recovered. Zack, fully refreshed, goes to find the dead soldier’s wife and hands her the wallet. She thanks him for his courage and honesty and agrees for him to search for the mine. Together with Isaac and his dog, they begin their journey through the dangerous terrain of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Unknown to them, they were being followed by an outlawed gang of Chinese immigrants, who had overheard their plans. They eventually manage to find the mine, but it is not what they expected. Ancient settlers from various Red Indian tribes appear and create havoc, and the two heroes are tasked with unbelievable struggles to save their own lives.

After studying Classical Languages at St. Bede’s School Manchester, Colin Thomas at the age of 16, left to start work as a silk screen printer and poster writer, later becoming a Litho machine operator. At 17, he joined as a singer in a popular rock and roll band, who became the regular band at the ‘BBC TOP OF THE POPS STUDIOS’ in Manchester in the 1960s, and other venues throughout the UK. At the same time, he worked as a Litho machine tester and demonstrator, for a well-known Manchester Printing Machine Manufacturer, and travelled all over the World extensively, whilst demonstrating their new Machinery on International Exhibitions. In 1980, at the age of 36, he set up his own successful commercial printing company, before selling it in 2010. Then took a part time job as a fleet car and courier van driver, until finally retiring in December of 2019. Colin then began to write his autobiography and books of poems and children’s books and continued further writing novels. To this day, Colin has written ten unpublished novels and over twenty other unpublished works. He has two children, Warren, aged 55, and Kelly, aged 37, from his first marriage to Lesley in 1965 who sadly died in 2007. Colin has now been married for the past 6 years to his lovely wife, Karen, and lives in a nice home in Cheshire, England, together with her 21-year-old son, Joe. Colin continues writing every day and Blessed is He is the first of his novels to be published.