Hey, Mr Big! is the self-published story of Jamie Gasking, aged 11, who was killed in an accident at the Falls of Bruar, Perthshire on 11 July 2003, as widely reported in the media at the time. Jamie’s accident occurred just eight days after he completed his final year at Carr-Bridge Primary School. After the summer he was looking forward to moving up to secondary school at Grantown Grammar School.

Hey, Mr Big! is an entirely-fund raising venture managed by “The Mr Big Group”, a constituted, non-profit-making community group, with the aid of a Small Community Grant from Moray Badenoch & Strathspey Enterprise, plus matching funding from the Community Economic Development (CED) Programme of the European Union. All proceeds from the sale of the book are going to “"The Jamie Fund” for the improvement of facilities for young people in and around Carr-Bridge.

Further details are available on the Mr Big website at www.mr-big.ik.com :

• Background to The Jamie Fund and The Mr Big Group
• Example of what’s in Hey, Mr Big! including a selection of extracts and pictures from the book 
• Information on the various ways to buy a copy of Hey, Mr Big! 
• “Our news” section charting the progress of the fund-raising efforts and the book project 
• “Media & reviews” section with details of past media coverage and book reviews

Hey, Mr Big! is a book that arose out of the months following Jamie’s accident: a father’s celebration of one ordinary 11-year old boy who shared his delight with those around him and in doing do touched the lives of many. From the starting point of the holiday diary that Jamie had spoken of writing that summer, Hey, Mr Big! follows the events of 2003 in a patchwork of words, recollections, letters and pictures  hopping around in time and place in true Jamie “that reminds me” fashion. The book is not a story of anger or blame and speaks little of events at the Falls of Bruar in July 2003 — in the words of the Mr Big website:

“A child should be remembered for the way he lived his life, not for the way that he died.”

From Alexander McCall Smith (author of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency) who read the proofs of Hey, Mr Big! and whose words are quoted on the front cover of Hey, Mr Big!:

“David Gasking has written a memoir which is both moving and positive. It is moving in that it speaks of a father's love for his son - a love that is beautifully described and which comes from the very deepest chambers of the heart. It is positive in that it shows us how to make something glowing and inspiring out of the darkest, bleakest loss. This is a book that enriches our moral landscape. It tells a story that is full of forgiveness and healing."

And local novelist Lin Anderson (author of Driftnet, Torch and Deadly Code):

“I found reading Mr Big an extraordinary experience. It is a beautifully written testimony to a father/son relationship. I never met Jamie yet felt by the end of the book I knew him well. Spending time with Jamie was an enriching experience. His enthusiasm and interest in the world were wonderfully engaging. A book to be treasured.”

From a personal letter from Nick Park of Aardman Animations, creator of Jamie’s favourite characters Wallace & Gromit, as quoted on the back cover of Hey, Mr Big!:

"Jamie reminded me a lot of myself at that age - so prolific and enthusiastic about life and with so many hobbies and interests."

Sarah Johnston, writing in a full-page feature for “Family Matters” in the Sunday Post, 16 October 2005:

“Even if you never met Jamie Gasking, after only a few hours of reading Hey, Mr Big! you would feel you knew the adventurous boy with the infectious smile and thirst for life”

“The book is at times funny, often heartbreaking but the one thing that shines through is that Jamie never wasted a moment of his short life.”

Margaret Graeme in her review of the book for The Scots Magazine, July 2005:

“Eleven years is not a long time, but Jamie lived his short life to the full, filling every minute. It was a life cut short, yes, but not lived in vain as his father has demonstrated in this moving, uplifting and unforgettable celebration.”

In the circumstances, Hey, Mr Big! has followed few of the “normal” rules for promoting a self-published book: no book signings or public events, for example. With limited resources and no particular pattern to go on, much of the time it has simply been a question of trial and error.

After the first six months a better picture of the typical reader was beginning to emerge, and a clearer idea of where the unique strengths of the venture were to be found: notably in the eagerness of so many individuals and organisations to be a part of something which offers little or no profit to themselves but which delivers an out-of-the-ordinary “feel-good” factor. In many ways the whole project has taken on an identity and momentum of its own, with the sum of the parts far outweighing any single member.

A major breakthrough came in the summer of 2005 with the willing agreement of the Landmark Press tourist information distribution company based in Carr-Bridge to “piggy-back” the delivery of parcels of books anywhere along their normal routes. This, together with a extremely supportive book review in the Scots Magazine, opened the way for putting books on the shelf in numerous small bookshops and tourist outlets throughout much of the North of Scotland. Further examples since then of “creative distribution” have involved packages carried to places like Buckie and the Isle of Skye by drivers making deliveries to the Cairn Hotel in Carr-Bridge. It remains still the proud boast that every single book sent out to shops this summer has been delivered on goodwill alone, with no charge whatever.

Hey, Mr Big! is still very much “work in progress”. Promoting and distributing a self-published book is a demanding business — not least in the Highlands of Scotland — and we continue to keep our eyes out for opportunities to spread books out to areas where there are gaps in the present distribution network: Dundee and Angus, Oban and Argyll, and the Islands, for example. In the meantime, development is currently underway to try out “Buy it now” on eBay as a potential on-line extension of the present mail order arrangements for Hey, Mr Big!

And at those times when it seems like a an awful lot of work, that’s when it helps to remember that this is just the kind of project that Jamie would have loved to be a part of. And that leaving behind something for the benefit of those who grew up alongside him, and the young people who will follow on in years to come, is a legacy that he would have valued — something truly worth working for.

The Mr Big website is at http://www.mr-big.ik.com/