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Back Tweedale Street: A Yorkshire Childhood by Richard Alexander 151 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #04-0241; ISBN 1-4120-2413-7; US$17.00, C$18.78, EUR14.00, £10.00 Very funny, often light-hearted look at growing up in the 50s and 60s: the transition from childhood to manhood and first encounters with the opposite sex.
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about the book
about the author
sample excerpts and Table of Contents
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About the Book
A very funny and often light-hearted look at growing up in relative poverty in post-war England. Each chapter deals with aspects of the author's experiences of the journey from childhood to manhood.
Subjects covered include first experiences of school, part-time work, holidays and hobbies. Later chapters deal with going out, first encounters with girls, sex and different relationships.
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About the Author
After the childhood experiences described in this book Richard went on to pass out of the Britannia Royal Naval College in 1966 and was commissioned as an Officer in the Royal Navy in 1967. He achieved his desire to travel all over the world in various ships over the next few years.
Although he enjoyed his time in the Royal Navy he decided a lifetime Naval career was not for him and left at the end of his commission in 1970. He settled in Portsmouth and retrained as a chartered surveyor, married and moved to Hong Kong in 1977.
Richard and his wife Lesley had two sons in Hong Kong where he worked for the Government and the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club. He left in 1983 and took up a new position in Muscat, Sultanate of the Oman.
On his return to England in 1986 Richard worked mainly as a Development Surveyor leading a team dealing with projects throughout Great Britain. Now nearing retirement he lives in Harrogate, North Yorkshire.
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Sample Excerpts and Table of Contents
CONTENTS
The Awakening
Mischief and Play
Pets
Christmas treats, high days and holidays
Harbours
Be prepared
On yer bike
Margaret was my first love
Trouble at Mill, Mr Sykes
The French Connection
Drinking and the Sabbath
Irwin the mad Marketeer
Harry's cars
Big Jim the Roofer
Escape to a new life
Trouble at Mill
Mr Sykes introduced me to the supervisor and took his leave whereupon the supervisor took me across to Herbert as I was to be his work partner for the first week. When I first saw Herbert I had to swallow hard in disbelief, the poor sod looked just like the hunchback of Notre Dame; he could have acted the part without make up or padding. He was stooped, twisted, had only two teeth and a very convincing hump. Just in case nature had thought to be over generous in the allocation of good looks she had also given him a funny shrivelled hand and a club foot. I was horrified and speechless at the same time. I just had no idea how to react to a situation like this. herbert reached out offering his good hand and smiled at me to reveal two solitary teeth which looked to be the size of gravestones in his otherwise empty mouth. He even had a twisted smile to complete his totally revolting appearance.
Standard reading after dinner was the Daily Mirror which was hardly an intellectual challenge but I used to bring a book in. Herbert, who wasn't a big reader, asked me to read a bit of the book out loud to him so I did and very soon found I had an audience. I quickly realised that I had made a staggering discovery because using my own education as a benchmark I automatically assumed that everyone else was a competent reader. I was humbled to realise that the majority of these lovely people could only read haltingly on a word for word basis. I asked them at the end of the first reading session if they had enjoyed it and if they would like me to read to them again. the answer was a resounding yes. I then asked them if they liked poetry, history, novels or whatever. Poetry was a popular choice so on my way home I popped into the library and borrowed a couple of books.
The French Connection
We walked out into the warm summer night along the promenade watching ships going in and out of the harbour and lights twinkling on the shoreline. It was too perfect an evening to go home and we strolled arm in arm, feeling a growing bond of intimacy between us and some anticipation of where the night would take us. We moved down to walk on the beach stopping every few yards to kiss and embrace with increasing passion and intensity. We reached an area with a sprinkling of beach huts offering some degree of privacy from the promenade above and we lay down together on the warm sand and scooped out our own little hollow. We embraced passionately and with increasing intensity. Marie gave herself to me willingly and without conditions, she was a very natural and loving person who obviously really enjoyed doing what came naturally. Marie was different to English girls in so far as she had no hang ups about religion, guilt about enjoying sex or fear of pregnancy.
We managed to get lifts to the southern outskirts of London but had difficulty crossing the city as we had no money for public transport or even food. We started the long walk but it was very hot and after a couple of hours we stopped outside a small office block in central London feeling hot, sweaty and tired. We sat on the pavement drinking copious amounts of water, feeling hungry but relieved not to have to shoulder the rucksack for a while.
A group of young female workers were leaning out of a first floor window and asked us what we were doing. We briefly related our story, smiled and exchanged a few pleasantries and thought nothing of it. Just as we were about to leave one of the girls appeared on the pavement and gave us some money. They had felt sympathy for us and had organised a little collection. We moved off after offering our profuse thanks, bless you girls, it could not have come at a better time and restored our faith in human nature. As we moved down the road we bought bread, cheese and butter with the money and lived off this for the next two days.
Catalogue Information
