Hops, doodlebugs and floods
By: Alan Whitcomb
Series: Reminiscence
Publisher: ISIS; Reminiscence Large Print
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Oxford
Language: eng
Number of pages: 336
ISBN-13: 9780753195543; 9780753195550
Subjects: Childhood and youth; World War, 1939-1945; Large type books; Biography; Social aspects
Description: "You always wore old clothes while hop picking as they got stained and smelly from the hops. My pride of attire from the hopping box during my early teens was a pair of horse riding jodhpurs."This is the tale of a boy born into a typical East End of London family during the Blitz. Told with nostalgia and humour, he begins with his early memories of hop picking in Kent, life in the 1950s and the east coast floods of 1953.After leaving school at 15 Alan joined the Merchant Navy illegally. He had a brush with danger during the Suez Crisis, suffered appendicitis while sailing down the coast of Africa, and spent a spell in an Australian prison!
Notes: Originally published: Stroud: History, 2009.