The Thunderbolt Kid
I just got word from producer Dawn Munro that will be appearing on our Cover Stories programme on the 8th September. I've just finished reading his latest book - The Life & Times of the Thunderbolt Kid - in which he details his childhood in 1950's America. It's a great read, very funny and yet tinged with sadness as he laments the passing of a era.
I've also been reading biography - The Beatles, Football & Me. I was an avid reader of his Father's Day column in Punch way back in the 1980's. He would write about his three children and the various problems of parenthood.
I was interested to find out that he gave up writing the column because a teacher at his son's school would make fun of the boy and the things that had been written about him in the magazine. It made me wary of the stuff I write about my own family in this diary.
My favourite book of the year, however, was a paperback I picked up at the start of the summer. was cmpiled by Simon Garfield and based on the World War II diaries of four different people who were part of the famous project.
One of the diaries was written by a young woman who was working as a shipping clerk in an office in Glasgow. Unlike our impressions of a stiff upper lips, she describes the day-to-day feeling of gloom and defeatism among her colleagues and the ever growing belief that the Nazis would actually win the war and take control of the British government.
It's also quite chilling when she describes the bomb damage around Glasgow and names places, like Queen Street Station, that I find myself in once a week.
I suppose I'm drawn to these real-life accounts of ordinary life. If anyone has recommendations for similar books I'd love to hear about them.
