When I completed my first book ‘Memories of a Wenlock Childhood’ I was thrilled to find how many folks found that my stories triggered their own memories of childhood and, in the process, inspired them to relive happy moments long lost in the midst of a busy life!
Meanwhile I was left with a host of stories of my own still looking for a permanent home! Although overall we had a happy childhood, life was not easy for my family during the years following my father’s sudden death, but we survived and found a new permanent family home in the house my mother had built opposite our beloved Windmill Hill!
My second book published in April 2022, titled ‘Uphill Both Ways’, grew out of these memories. When one starts on a story of childhood, so much remains to be told of one’s journey along the rollercoaster of life! Thus the memories of our adventures along the road of life kept on coming and so my Series, ‘Eighty Years of Living ‘ was born!
My third Book, ‘Dr. Brookes, Our Small Town Doctor who Changed the World!’ is virtually a thesis I wrote for my College Education course which demanded a slim book of its own. For, although today, Dr. William Penny Brookes has been rediscovered and many scholarly detailed studies of his contribution to the revival of the International Olympic Games have been published, back in 1955 he was the forgotten man.
Apart from his international achievements, Dr. Brookes, over the course his long life, spearheaded enormous changes in every facet of our village life, from sewage disposal to creation of a lending Library open to everyone in Wenlock!
It’s a remarkable tale of what one determined person managed to achieve even as he continued to serve as our village Doctor for over fifty years! I have also included copies of old photos of our own Olympic Parades from the 1920’s, 40’s and 50’s.