publication date and isbn number now available
Matador Non-Fiction
A Smudge on my Lens
£9.99
by Dave Spencer
Published: 01 September 2008
An adopted post war baby boomer from a Sussex council estate, reminders of the conflict littered the 50’s landscape. Nature was still bountiful but the landed gentry were selling our heritage before conservation had teeth. This was the first television generation: weaned on the Flower Pot Men, Dave Spencer grows up in an increasingly commercial and libertarian society which explodes into the colourful sixties. Ill at ease amongst former public school boys, a lurch to the left sees the author struggling with the antics of gas board apprentices followed by fun in the stock room as a trainee retail manager. Set against popular music and current events of the era a rude awakening comes in the shape of a wily Glaswegian con man. A confrontation with the law and a taste of life on the road leads to a ferry across the Mersey and a hippy hike from Cornwall to Manchester. A final fling in Sussex comes as a long haired milkman in a story which mixes religion, drugs, politics and passion.
From idealist to opportunist the author encounters characters from the IRA to the Jewish rag trade. It’s not all a barrel of laughs but with a wry sense of humour and optimism life is never dull. One minute a member of Britain’s nuclear defence forces and the next fighting for a woman’s right to order a pint of ale. The alternative society of 70’s Manchester saw radical political and social changes embraced with the author’s usual enthusiasm.
Settling down to a conventional lifestyle didn’t stop wanderlust, resuming interest in hobbies Dave emerges as one of the world’s most travelled transport photographers with his video camera aimed at some unlikely corners of a bewildered planet. The kindness of strangers often restores faith in mankind and some of the characters we meet are strange indeed.
ISBN: 978-1906510-787
No comments:
Post a Comment