Shock new twist to Titanic tale

More than a hundred years after the sinking of the Titanic, the Berwick author of the best-selling book And the band played on has unearthed some gripping new information.

Christopher Ward tells the story of his 21-year-old grandfather Jock Hume, one of the violinists who heroically carried on playing as the stricken ship went down in 1912.

And he is now working on a new publication outlining a scandalous secret about the forebear he never met.

All will be revealed when Titanic - Loss, Legacy, Love comes out. And former national newspaper editor Christopher is planning to give more talks — in Berwick and beyond — charting his personal interest in the Titanic.

It’s a story which beguiles people more and more as time goes by.

James Cameron’s 1997 movie of the disaster Titanic became the biggest box office hit of all time. The centenary of the sinking in 2012 was a global event, and a Belfast museum on the site of the Harland & Wolf shipyard, where the liner was built, has welcomed millions of visitors.

Christopher’s late-life career now takes him around the world – ironically following in his grandfather’s footsteps - on modern-day passenger liners such as the Queen Mary 2 entertaining audiences as a speaker.

He says: “I thought my own family history could hold no more shocks or surprises. But I was wrong. In the updated story I explore: was Jock a hero or a cad?”

In the meantime the original book is available on Amazon here And the Band Played On and the documentary of it Titanic: The Aftermath is on the Discovery Channel.

Catriona Price is one of the most versatile Scottish musicians on the international stage. A prolific grass-roots folk fiddler, classical violinist, composer and vocalist, she studied at the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music having spent her childhood in Orkney.

Listen to her play Nearer My God To Thee - the haunting hymn which Jock and his fellow musicians played as the Titanic went down.