MENU
I have written 3 novels, 2 self-published and the third to be published later in 2023, about a self-deprecating, hard drinking, cynical, separated Irish journalist who has a spirit for adventure, a love of life, a sense of the ridiculous, an ability to fall in love with inappropriate women and the mental stability of a high wire artist on crack cocaine.
How, I wonder... I’m not particularly imaginative nor have I ever displayed a great talent for reading or writing up to my early fifties. But I will explore that conundrum later… now I want to tell you about what I have written.
My first novel, ‘To Santeria and Back’ was self published on Amazon in 2008. I sold about 400 copies but largely to my own circle of, who were at the time, friends.
Mike Beetlestone
Storyteller
Lessons learnt from that, the book wasn't ready and there were too many grammatical errors.
I rewrote the book and had it edited, then republished in 2022, renaming it ‘Finding Santeria… Losing Sanity’
I tried to widen my audience and got several five star reviews from Literary e Publications across both the USA and the UK.
But up to the present, it has not appeared in any best seller list… I’m sure that’s about to change when you read all about it
‘We are all storytellers. There isn’t a stronger connection between people than storytelling
-Jimmy Neil Smith, American Journalist
BIO
I was born in Leeds, a proud Yorkshireman but moved to Wilmslow, south of Manchester when I was eleven. The first time Leeds United played Manchester United after my move Leeds lost 6-0, which resulted in my facing relentless jeering from my new class mates in King’s School, Macclesfield. An experience I have yet to recovered from and claim to be the first ABU (Anybody but United—the Manchester one) in the World.
After King’s, I graduated from Lancaster University with a degree in Mathematics, Economics and Operational Research. Two years working in IBM in London, I met my wife, Maria and we moved to her home town of Dublin where I spent my entire working career in Outdoor Advertising, fourteen years of which were spent developing my own company.
I retired a few years ago and moved to Gorey some fifty miles south of Dublin.
I have a keen interest in sport, being for many years, the Chairman of the Leinster Badminton Leagues and Cups Committee (we claimed, with no real evidence, that it was the largest league in Europe in any sport with over 700 teams competing). I’m still playing golf and organise annual cricket tours for Arthurs Knights Cricket Club, travelling in recent years to Croatia, Malta, Portugal, Spain , Cyprus, Corfu and Holland. Further I travelled with the Irish Taverners to India, playing on test pitches in Mumbai, Chennai and Poona. And I still cling on to my devotion to the rollercoaster ride that Leeds United offer their supporters.
I have raised over €30,000 for Temple Street University Children’s Hospital and in doing so have been on many sponsored walks including Cambodia, Venezuela, Borneo, Chile and one to Cuba in 2003 which gave me much of the background for my first book.
I have 3 grown up children, Mark currently working on a project for sustainable buildings in the far East, Gavin working with a company in Mayo promoting environmental awareness and Eva who lives in Baldoyle on the northside of Dublin with her partner Rick, a fellow writer whose beautiful book combining the talents of butchery and gourmet cooking which has recently been voted the best cookery book in the World by a New York Gastronomy Association in 2022, and raises our 4 wonderful (major brownie points there) grandchildren, Luke, Hannah, Megan and Rebecca
