A BARRHEAD author’s account of the devastation he and his siblings felt when their parents died within weeks of each other took a tragic twist when his brother died just as the book was about to be released, writes David Carnduff.

Phil Mews was just seven and his brother Roger five when tragedy struck the family at their farm in the picturesque Dales of the north of England in 1976.

An older brother Richard, who was 18, was able to continue the farm work but Phil and Roger had to face an uncertain life away from home at boarding school.

But further heartache arrived last November when Roger – a well-known DJ – took ill and died from a brain haemorrhage at his home in Majorca, just as finishing touches were being applied to the book.

Phil said: “Roger knew I was writing the book – he was quite up for it. Two days before he died I sent him the cover picture of us as kids and he joked ‘I hope you’re going to airbrush out my knobbly knees.”

Roger had been a DJ on Mallorca Radio 1 and was a popular and well-known figure on the on the holiday isle. After he died, many glowing tributes appeared on social media describing him as legend and one of the funniest, kindest DJs in Magaluf.

Phil said: “Myself and family members went to his funeral in Majorca. His death was a shock, it was sheer hell in fact.

“He was looking forward to the book coming out, so in many respects it is a tribute to him. Orphan Boys is not a misery memoir, it’s a story full of love, strength and hope.”

Phil has worked in the TV industry for 18 years and was a member of the production crew on the BBC documentary Days that Shook the World which received a BAFTA nomination.

He has rubbed shoulders with many top stars and credits Sandi Toksvig, the comedian, actor and presenter, as giving him constant encouragement to write the book.

He said: “I was working on Fifteen to One with Sandi and I was telling her that I was trying to write a novel but my own story kept creeping in when I didn’t want it to.

“Sandi knew of my childhood circumstances and suggested that I write about my family and what happened to us in the 1970s.”

“I started writing Orphan Boys the next day. Over the next 12 months, I wrote the book with constant encouragement from Sandi along with my family and close friends.”

Phil, who now works in TV production in Glasgow, said this, his first published book, had been an emotional journey and more so in the last five months since Roger died.

He said: “I’m looking forward to getting the book out there for people to read it. It’s not just my story, or Roger’s, it belongs to all of our family as family is truly at the heart of my book.

“I may have lost my little brother, but I truly feel that I have done him justice with Orphan Boys.”

Orphan Boys will be released on Amazon Kindle on Thursday, April 13 and the paperback edition of the book will be published in July.

It is currently available to pre-order on amazon.

A fundraising page in memory of Roger has collected more than £3,300 for the Royal Masonic Trust for Girls and Boys, a charity which helped the family after the parents’ death.

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