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Bezig met laden... A Yorkshire Boyhooddoor Roy Hattersley
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It was not until he was dead and I was forty that I realised my father was once in Holy Orders,' Roy Hattersley tells us in the opening pages of A YORKSHIRE BOYHOOD; so setting the tone for an elegant, continually surprising book. A somewhat precocious only child, Roy grew up surrounded by protective, ever-anxious adults, equally determined to expose him to books and to shield him from germs -- second-hand books were decontaminated by a sharp session in the oven. Uncle Ernest, a timber merchant's clerk celebrated for his skill at 'fretwork and the manipulation of Indian clubs'; a ten-year feud with the next-door neighbours; unwavering devotion to Sheffield Wednesday - all the pleasures and pangs of northern working-class childhood are magnificently evoked as Roy Hattersley takes us through the hardships of the Thirties and the Blitz; and into the 1940s, the 11-plus examination and Grammar School. Completely updated, A YORKSHIRE BOYHOOD is an autobiographical essay of unusual wit, eloquence and candour. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)942.8History and Geography Europe England and Wales Northeast EnglandLC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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When Roy’s parents decided to get married and move in together, they faced great opposition due to Roy’s father (also known as Roy) leaving the priesthood. They, together with Roy senior’s two brothers and Roy junior’s maternal Grandmother moved away from the gossip of Nottingham, initially to South Yorkshire and then to Sheffield. They were very poor when they first moved away and initially had no jobs, but were helped financially by Aunts of Roy’s mother, known collectively as “Worksop”, that being where they lived.
The memoir tells of life from this point up to when Roy left Sheffield City Grammar school to take economics at university. He was originally going to study English, but changed when advised that economics would be a degree more suited to life as a politician – a career that Roy had long held ambition for.
The book is full of amusing anecdotes of growing up in the 1930s and 40s and is written with warmth and in an easy reading style. Roy was a poorly child, suffering from asthma and also frequent bouts of bronchitis. On snippet to give a flavour of the writing tells of 1940 when the Germans were bombing Sheffield on a regular basis:
The book contains many references to Roy’s beloved Sheffield Wednesday and his love of cricket, and (mostly) fond memories of his school days and also of times, wistfully remembered, of playing in the streets – a time of war but also a time of great freedom. I don’t know much about Roy Hattersley’s adult life really (apart from that gleaned from his lisping, spurting Spitting Image puppet!), and I’m not really interested in politics, but I shall definitely look out for some more of his writing. ( )