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The Poetry & Art of Retirement

by John Ledgerton

249 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); colour and black and white images; catalogue #05-0483; ISBN 1-4120-5585-7; US$20.85, C$23.98, EUR17.13, £11.99

A book of enlightenment for the over 50s. War, romance, art and poetry... this book has it all. Retirement is a killer, Don't let it happen.

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About the Book      About the Author      Excerpts      Catalogue Information

About the Book

This book covers a lot of ground for a number of reasons. Initially it's about men surviving on a low pension. It is a known fact that men on low pensions do not survive much more than five years beyond their retirement age. They simply cannot cope in permanent idleness... or can they? Clearly his brain is geared to the work ethic, when work ceases any job will do as long as he can go to work. This is the thinking of millions of men. Can we change that thinking? I think I can. So many men are unable to cope in retirement; many simply idle their precious time away in their favourite chair waiting to die. All these men need is education. To emphasise I understand, I tell my own story of depression and how through my anger I almost lost my marriage. Using art and poetry I was not only able to survive the trauma of retirement, I am now enjoying my Third age to the full. It is important for the reader to highlight my background and where I come from; as so many people think the arts belong to another world. This is where the WW2 romance comes into my story. It is the story of my parents whirl wind romance and marriage culminating in the tragic death of my father aboard the SS Scillin when 800 British and Allied POW's where killed by a British Submarine Commander. In this book I teach how to paint with oils and to write poetry. I explain how writing and fine art changed my life. How these two disciplines plucked me from the doors of a nervous breakdown and got me back my wife.

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About the Author

John Ledgerton was born 05/01/42. He retired through ill health in 1992. In 1957 John left school with no qualifications at the age of 15 and began serving his apprenticeship as a painter and decorator with the Liverpool Corporation in Garston. Completing his apprenticeship he spent the rest of his working life in the Construction industry, Ship Building, and Chemical industries. Throughout his life John has been involved with the Trade Union Movement holding posts as Shop Steward, Safety Rep, Trade Union Branch Secretary/Chairman/Treasurer. He studied trade union affairs and politics at numerous colleges around Merseyside with a spell at Ruskin College Oxford. John has three boys (now married), three wonderful daughters in law and seven grandchildren (with another one on the way). Although born and bred in Liverpool he has lived in Wallasey since his return from Australia in 1974. He says, he would never now, leave Wallasey. His ambitions, he says are: To visit Florence and Rome, to paint a Masterpiece in oils, and to write a best seller. Also good would be to write a first line of a poem that everybody would recognise.

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Excerpts

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Catalogue Information

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