RETIRED submariner and former HMNB Clyde commodore Eric Thompson MBE will give a talk in Helensburgh next week.

Eric, whose impressive CV also includes an eight-year spell as an Argyll and Bute councillor for the old Helensburgh East ward, is the author of the best-selling book ‘On Her Majesty’s Nuclear Service’, and has also published three books of comic verse, one of them entitled ‘Colquhounsville sur Mer’, his alternative name for Helensburgh.

As a poet, he was commissioned to write the Helensburgh Bicentenary poem for the town’s bicentenary celebrations in 2002, while he is also a highly regarded after-dinner speaker.

He is calling his latest talk ‘More Nonsense from the Commodore’, a title he used for his retirement presentation in 1998 – though beyond the title, neither we nor, we think, Eric are entirely sure what topics will be covered. One thing seems guaranteed: it will be unpredictable.

The talk takes place at the Scottish Submarine Centre on West King Street on Thursday, July 27, starting at 7pm.

Tickets, costing £10, are available online at bit.ly/ericthompsonmorenonsense or by popping into the centre in person.