My old friend and former colleague John Sharrock Taylor has just had his first book published.

John and I worked together at the same school in Cheshire in the 1970s, as I was beginning my career as a languages teacher and he was Head of English and Director of the School Choir.

John went on to be headteacher and/or school administrator on four continents before retiring to Andalucía, where he and his wife Val live a busy rustic life on their olive farm.

In his spare time John is a writer and also director of the local La Vid y La Vida choir, based in Villanueva de Tapia (Málaga).

A Wigan Childhood (ISBN: 978-1-874181-71-2)

John Sharrock Taylor describes his book A Wigan Childhood  as a cross between Cider With Rosie and Who Do You Think You Are? with a dash of Gervase Phinn, author of several entertaining autobiographical books about life as a schools adviser in the Yorkshire Dales.

Yet John has succeeded in finding his own distinctive voice. According to his publisher:

“A Wigan Childhood is a happy marriage of personal memoir and local history. With great warmth and wit, John Taylor paints a vivid picture of knee-high life in the 1950s, an era that many Wiganers will remember with clarity and fondness. Indeed, this book will be a sheer delight for anyone who recalls (or loves to read about) a time when Mondays meant the smell of boiling washing; when net curtains twitched in the hope of witnessing scandal; homemade brakeless go-karts terrorised old ladies; cinema lights shone on every corner; and the air was filled with the competing aromas of coal dust, meat and potato pies and Uncle Joe’s mintballs. In a tremendously entertaining style, and with real honesty, the author tells not only of his own childhood but also reveals the stories – skeletons and all! – of generations of his family. The portrayals of austere aunts, black-clad grandmothers, naughty boys and a myriad other characters will have readers nodding in recognition, and laughing out loud at some of their tales and exploits.

“And to set the whole lot in context, John has woven skilfully into the narrative the history of the town itself, right back to earliest times, making this book a truly rounded evocation of a much-loved Lancashire town, and a must for all who know it."

'A thoroughly engaging book to be read and treasured'

A Wigan Childhood (ISBN: 978-1-874181-71-2) published by Carnegie Publishing Ltd under their Palatine Books imprint is available from:

www.carnegiepublishing.com
www.amazon.co.uk

Click here to look at John Sharrock Taylor's website

©  Paul Whitelock

Tags: John Sharrock Taylor, A Wigan Childhood, Cider With Rosie, La Vid y La Vida, Villanueva de Tapia, Who Do You Think You Are?, Gervase Phinn, Carnegie Publishing, Palatine Books, paul whitelock, www.a1-solutions-spain.com