Herefordshire man defies those who called him stupid

Clifford Johnson published Bolt from the Blue this week, which took years to write and months to spell check.

With severe and undiagnosed dyslexia, Mr Johnson had a bad time in school in the 60s and 70s.

“In school I was called stupid,” he said.

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But he was not diagnosed until the age of 32, when he enrolled in an adult education literary class to improve his spelling.

Herefordshire author, Clifford Johnson with the first printed copy of his new book, Bolt from the Blue. Clifford also designed the cover to his book which is displayed next to him Picture: Rob Davies

“I had a great teacher who was very supportive but once said ‘we will improve your spelling, but you will never write a book.’”

This is when he started to write his book for his own amusement and after 72,000 words typed with two fingers, it was untouched for 30 years.

But during lockdown, he took to his keyboard again after running out of books to read, and two years later it was finished.

“Just because somebody has a problem with communication doesn’t mean they don’t have anything of value to say,” he said.

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After nine rewrites and a lot of hard work, his book was finished for the world to read.

“It was such a hard slog,” said Mr Johnson.

“I worked hard on this, and it is the best I can possibly do.”

Mr Johnson and his wife do not have children and he wanted to leave behind a legacy.

“I wanted to do something big to show I was here,” he said.

“I do lots of art projects and this is the biggest I will ever do.”

Bolt from the Blue is a fast-paced thriller about the developing relationship between the main character Ron Moon and a mysterious woman, who in their attempts to make sense of her traumatic history, trigger a dangerous chain of events.

Mr Johnson painted the cover himself and it can be found on Amazon and free to download on Kindle.

“I am really proud of it,” he said.

“I hope in a small way this will inspire people who struggle on a daily basis.”