Crowhurst rock star takes up the pen

Clive Parker-Sharp was at the forefront of the punk movement forming The Members with Nicky Tesco, the biggest independent band of all time Spizzenergi, and had a hit album in 1980 with Athletico Spizz 80.

He then went on to form Big Country with Stuart Adamson sharing stages with The Clash, The Human League, The Only Ones, Siouxsie and The Banshees and Alice Cooper.

Now he has a new book published by Strand UK Ltd with a launch taking place at Blackshed Art Gallery in Robertsbridge on Saturday.

Clive has just completed a series of radio interviews with the BBC talking about his new career as an author.

He wrote his novel The Box book while hiding away in a cabin in the woods near his home.

It is based on true-life accounts from diaries of controversial Pentecostal African Thomas Brem-Wilson, and tape-recorded interviews with his sons, Philip and Ray.

Thomas becomes embroiled with the vast Chicago Zionist movement, his son Philip establishing a Bingo empire in the 1960s caught up with East End gangsters ‘The Richardsons’. Philip’s daughter Nina goes on a fantastical journey to reclaim Thomas’s lands and Gold in Ghana in the 1970s.

The book has been described as as an ‘unputdownable’ bumpy ride of lust, zealotry, murder, money, and larceny, with two nail biting court trials, love and loss.

But Clive is not turning his back on music. He is currently battling record label giants EMI in a high profile legal action over a breach of copyright on Big Country songs.

The launch and book signing at the Blackshed Gallery takes place from 6pm - 10.30pm on Saturday and is free.