AN author from Looe is awaiting the publication of his second book this September.
The former Looe Harbour Commissioner, town councillor and deputy mayor turned author, Michael Soady is the eldest son of a sixth generation Cornish fisherman. He was born in West Looe in 1937.
Mike served two stints on Looe Harbour Commission and was the youngest chair when he started, and the oldest when he left in 2019. He was jokingly presented with a model of a blue dinosaur on a pedestal when he retired at 82 in November 2019. The dinosaur still sits on his sideboard today.
On retiring, the eldest of his five daughters approached him about writing his memoirs. He said: “Every time she visited me, she would ask me if I had started it yet. After two years of asking, she turned up once when I was watching the football. The first thing she asked was whether I’d started it yet and I just said yes to keep her quiet.
“After she’d gone I thought what have I done?! I couldn’t sleep that night. I thought what on earth shall I write about and then I thought, I’ll write about my boats.”
Mike had 11 boats throughout his life, the first a sailing boat ‘Hilda’ which was given to him on his 10th birthday. Memories of that boat are captured in his first book, An Unlikely Cornish Fisherman: The Early Years, including stories of the period up to the summer of 1963.
In this sequel, Endeavour to be a Cornish Fisherman, Michael’s story continues from 1963 through to 1972.
He shares his transition from a guided weapons draughtsman employed by the admiralty, to becoming a member of his father’s crew on the 35ft Looe fishing vessel Endeavour FY369; describing his inner fears and his fight to prove that being a seventh generation fisherman was indeed in his blood.
His story also takes the reader through the death throes and final demise in the 1970s of the once vibrant Cornish pilchard industry in Looe.
With royalties arriving sporadically from his first book - it didn’t sell a million he quips - with copies sold around the world including the USA, South Korea, Thailand and France, asked if there’s another book in him yet, he reveals that he’s already half way through.
He said: “I’m not someone that sits and writes at 5am every morning though. If something comes into my head, I’ll just sit and write a couple chapters on that. I’m an ex-fisherman, not an author, really.”
The tale of the blue dinosaur retirement gift may appear in a further Soady memoir yet.
Endeavour to be a Cornish Fisherman, is due to be released on September 13 and is published by Austin Macauley Publishers.