'Sunflowers for Ukraine' (and introducing 'SUFT'!')

Invasion Day +49 and +50 Firstly, huge apologies for the non-appearance of the blog yesterday: attempts to publish it consistently failed followed by an announcement by the platform host that it was an error at their end. Unfortunately the post also failed to save so here it is recreated this morning.

Yesterday morning we picked up 400 copies of 'Sunflowers for Ukraine' from the printers and although it was a fast turn around publication it is excellent both in feel and content. A huge thank you to everyone involved in the project, over twenty five of us with eighteen writers, eight sponsors and four staff members as well as the magnificent work late into the evenings by the print team of David, Tracey, Paul and Alice at Prontaprint. We thank you all very much indeed.

The Book

'Sunflowers for Ukraine' is a 72-page booklet containing poems, prose and helpful articles for Ukraine. The submissions are moving, well- crafted, and appropriate, coming from a range of writing talent and experience, some being published for the first time, others being multi-published authors. It is engagingly illustrated with incisive 'cartoons' by caricaturist Bill Petherick with design work by Emilija at Emi Designs. A must for every coffee table and book case!

The plan for the book is that it will be distributed against a donation to 'Hoggy's Fund' (see the note below for more details of this). We are hoping that we can raise the target amount, or as close as possible, which we have set at £4000. This suggests an average donation of £10 but everyone is asked to just please give whatever you feel you can. We know these are tricky times for us all but the cause of Ukraine is our cause, a cause for freedom from tyranny, justice for humanity, truth for the world, truth being much needed for Russians in particular, and for peace.

We have already raised and distributed £500 from pre-launch donations through Hoggy's Fund. This money has gone straight out to eleven worthy people, mainly young and elderly Ukrainians in need of urgent food supply. Eight were in the west of Ukraine having fled Kharkiv to relative safety, one had made it to Poland, again from Kharkiv and the two from Tuesday's blog post, sixteen year old heroic singer Lina and dancer Lora still in Ukraine, and in Lina's case, still in Kharkiv refusing to leave her elderly grandmother. We are trying to persuade them to safety.

If you can donate please can you mail Hoggy at hoggytheymp@gmail.com or direct to the office by the address you already have and the details will be sent out. We cannot post them here at present as this might compromise the correspondent's details.

Hoggy's Fund

We have now had invitations accepted by five of our correspondents to be come 'overseers' (or 'trustees' if you prefer the term) of Hoggy's Fund. This is to provide transparency for the money, accountability for every pound donated, and to help with deciding how best to distribute the fund. One member is in Scotland, one in Devon, one in Yorkshire, one presently in Germany, and one from Ukraine. Accounts will be 'overseen' on a regular basis and details of the support given will be published here. We had hoped to open a small 'charities' account but the banks have been inundated with similar fund requests and have placed applications on hold. We are grateful to the team at Bryn Stowe Associates for lending us their charity account in the meantime for this purpose.

'Please give generously' is the call today!

Meanwhile, the sinking of the Russian flagship, Moskva, in yesterday's planned post containing a piece about how Putin distorts even the most obvious for his own malign ends was to be posted. But events have moved on and of course the ship didn't sink of its own accord, wasn't slightly damaged by a small fire, well under control, nor was it being repaired in Sevastopol. It was sunk to the bottom of the Black Sea by two Ukrainian 'Neptune' Missiles, a huge blow to Russian naval pride, if the Russians ever get to hear of it of course. It appears the crew were saved avoiding even more loss of life, but hopefully they have been suitably shocked.

The sinking has prompted a cartoonist to write in offering his services to the blog and we ae very happy to accept this offer by 'SUFT.' Do please read 'Today's Letters' and smile in these dark days at SUFT's take on the sinking and the war.

Please can you also send details of the blog to your friends and anyone you feel may be able to contribute or be interested? Thank you all, last night's site crash sadly wiped some of the analytics but we know there had been over 1000 site visits so far in the first five weeks of the blog. Amazing and as you may know we are reluctant to go directly on to social media because of risks to the site and our Ukrainian correspondents, but please feel able to cite us in your own and direct people to the blog. There is some powerful writing here.

Today's Letters:

From cartoonist 'SUFT', Scotland

Dear Hoggy,

Considering this morning’s news about the damage to the Russian flagship I have penned the below cartoon.

Please use it as you see fit. I thought that it may fit on Hoggy’s page and have come up with the artist’s name, SUFT, which means, Supporting Ukraine from Terrorism. I can, if you see it as appropriate, do these under that name on a regular basis guided by yourself.

Best wishes,

'SUFT'

Scotland

Dear SUFT,

Excellent, you are some wizard!!!

We were just posting this with this response about war cartoonists through the ages, Bairnsfather and Low, when the site collapsed at the hosts end so apologies for the delay in replying.

You certainly have the job, SUFT is the new blog cartoonist!!!!

There is a long history of war cartoonists of course of whom you will be the latest! We depict here two, Bruce Bairnsfather from the First World War, and David Low from the Second.

Here ae two famous cartoons of theirs which you will know well I imagine? the second by Low is very apposite right now.

By Bruce Bairnsfather -image used under creative commons licensing agreements being in the public domain

By David Low - British Cartoon Archive at the University of Kent used within licensing agreements.

This is wonderful and actually very good timing because, as we have found out, the big challenge with blog writing is to keep it fresh and interesting so people really want to read it rather than through a sense of duty.

The incisive and humorous take by 'SUFT' is just brilliant timing! Thank you.

We look forward to publishing more from SUFT here.

Thank you again,

Hoggy

From Hoggy

Dear correspondents, readers, and supporters all,

Here is the cover image of the book 'Sunflowers for Ukraine' pleas email us for copies as soon as you can! We will try to post out the same day where we can. Please do not forget to include your full name and address in your mail!!! Mail to : Hoggytheyimp@gmail.com.

Thanks all,

Hoggy