Were you a 'baby boomer' or know of one? Did you grow up in post-war Britain? Have you ever been to Yorkshire? Then this book is for you. This story describes life in Yorkshire in the 1950s and 1960s from knitted swimsuits, outside toilets, frost on the windows - on the inside, through the birth of rock 'n' roll and the Beatles craze.
It charts the growth of Harrogate as a spa and subsequent changes. The author's granddads were in the First World War in India and the Italian Front, and her dad was in many theatres of war, including Anzio in the Second World War. The characters in her family are described. Her grannies were as different as chalk from cheese. Granny Wardman bleached her hair with neat peroxide, dabbed on her rouge, then set forth into town. Granny Hodgson was bent like a boomerang, had long white hair, wore grey and brown and thick lisle stockings.
Saturday morning pictures, and queueing for the cinema to see The Dam Busters and Reach for the Sky was commonplace before the boom era of television. 1960 brought a trauma to the family, and life was never the same.
Many events of the time are included, such as the Queen's coronation, President Kennedy's assassination, The Moors Murders, the 1966 World Cup, and the Aberfan Disaster. Scarlet fever, polio, tuberculosis, mumps and measles was common, and it was the era of 'wonder drugs' the Pill and Thalidomide.
It is full of humour, pathos and little-known facts. There are lots of 'Wow! I didn't know that!' moments.
