Shandy on Sunday

Shandy on Sunday is a charming book where social history and family history of post war Britain are expertly intertwined to make informative yet easy reading. Christine Dodsworth provides an in-depth account of her home town Harrogate across the post war decades packed with facts, fun and tragedy in equal measure. An extremely useful resource for those wishing to research the baby boomer years on a personal, national and international level. Thank you Christine.

Christine’s delightful book covers a big range. The story of her growing up in Harrogate, history of Harrogate itself, national & international events taking place at the time & some military history. Growing up mentions school milk, cod liver oil & government orange juice, all gone now. As a little girl, her granny sent her shopping. After each shop, she had to return home so that granny could check the change then back to the same place for the next shop. There is the sad story of her brother killed at a young age in a motor bike accident. It was probably the car driver’s fault in those days no proper accident investigation & no crash helmets. Two relatives were in the army. We are told in clear terms about two campaigns. The first is the battle of Capretto in the first world war and the eventual outcome on the Italian front. The second is about a revolt in Afghanistan & the expedition against it. Afterwards the commanding officer said there had been ‘exemplary punishment and complete submission’ of the revolt. Two scandals are discussed: the denial of proper pensions to married women & the forced transport of poor children to Australia. An entertaining & informative book

Lovely book, great introduction into life in Yorkshire. I passed it on to a number of friends who all enjoyed it very much.

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this book which has re-kindled lots of memories of my home town as well as events in the wider world. It is interspersed with humour and at times sadness. I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone but in particular to those who grew up in the 1950's and 60's era. Thank you Christine for such a good read.

Really enjoyed reading this wonderful romp through the 50s and 60s. It brought back so many happy, funny memories. Highly recommend this beautifully written book which gave an interesting insight into life growing up in the Yorkshire town of Harrogate.