Mandolin Playing Father drowns his Sorrows.

And what sorrows he had to share with the fathers in the Spirit Bar last night.  He may well be famous. He may well have won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book that was translated into 11 languages before being made into a film Captain Corelli's Mandolin, but he still lost his children.

Even having his work praised by woman who flocked to his touching book and film, he was not praised by the Family Court when his beloved nailed him to the floor of the Court.


He told us his tale.

"Father's Day has become a day of sorrow and anger for many because family courts treat men like 'sperm donors'"

 

Louis de Bernieres, 58, argues that Father's Day goes by completely unnoticed by many children as a man's role in the family is being made to seem increasingly unimportant.

And, on the annual celebration of fatherhood, he has slammed the courts for treating 'fathers heartlessly as mere sperm donors and bankers' and for always favouring the rights of mothers.

"For too many men, Father's Day is a day of sorrow, frustration and anger, and for too many children it passes unnoticed."  

 "There were many times when I felt suicidal. One of the most extreme things you feel is a fantastically deep, bitter, anger at being treated so outrageously."

The author, who has previously spoken about his own struggle to see his children after splitting from their mother, also blamed 'political incorrectness' for making a father's role seem irrelevant.

He argued that the vital role of fathers is left out of literature for new parents and from teaching at school - instead concentrating on the importance of the mother.

In a letter to the Sunday Telegraph, he wrote: '

 

 

 "In schools nobody tells boys that fathering is the most important and responsible thing they will ever do, nor that, when done well, fatherhood bestows upon you the deepest, most satisfying and fun relationships of your life.


'The only explanation for this neglect is terror of the political incorrectness of offending single mothers, and the general mythologising of fathers as irrelevant and feckless abusers."

 

 

 

 

Mr de Bernieres has been campaigning for equal custody rights for fathers for several years after revealing he was left 'suicidal' after splitting from the mother of his children.

 

In 2010, the patron of Families Need Fathers (FNF) told how difficult it was for him see his young children, Robin and Sophie, after his 11-year-relationship with Cathy Gill, an actress and theatre director, broke down in 2009.

In newsletter sent out by FNF, he said that mothers do not have a 'divine right to own the children' and called for equal parenting to be the normal arrangement for parting couples.

He said: 'It was really dreadful.

 

'The worst thing, practically, was finding the house so quiet, because it was always so full of laughter and rampaging and stampeding.

 

'There was always a lot of noise and fun, and it suddenly went quiet.
'The emotional desolation is hard to describe."

 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2342575/Fathers-treated-mere-sperm-donors-Captain-Corellis-Mandolin-author-hits-family-courts.html#ixzz2WXia0VJH

Meanwhile the TV was on in the background with a couple of 'the usual suspects' evading the problem of the Family Court by blaming 'Deadbeat Dads' and asking for more support for the 95% of single MOTHERS. Not that they are called 'single mothers in such a subject but rather Single PARENTS, as though men were equally represented.
 

 

 

 

 There are so many fathers in his position and worse.

Many have succumbed to suicide.

Being the darling of women filmgoers and book-buyers is no protection. Playing the mandolin or guitar will cut no ice in a Anti-Family Caught. The best dads are treated 'equally' with the worst. The TV pundits remain the excusers and evaders, rent-seeking their way to the taxpayer's wallets.

All raised a glass and drowned their sorrows with him. The Landlord too.

In fact the Landlord was so upset he spilt tears and beer all over this blog-post.