BRIAN Aston was born and brought up in Earlsheaton, near Dewsbury, West Yorkshire where this autobiography begins. The amazing thing about this book is that Brian has a photographic memory and can recall the smallest details from his boyhood. This ability makes the book an important social history of the 20th century.
The story follows Brian, who now lives near Windermere, from his school days to his first work on farms and down the mines – the latter experience nearly killed him in a rock fall. The story continues with National Service in Germany followed by work on the roads before he found his calling in life as a gamekeeper.
The book recounts his experiences working for various estates in Yorkshire, Kent, Wiltshire, Lancashire and Cumbria. There is a great deal of colourful description of the people he knew and of gamekeeping practices. It is an impressive memoir covering the 1930s through to the 1970s when this first part of Brian’s autobiography ends at Edenhall, near Penrith.
In many ways this book documents a lost way of life. It will make fascinating reading for anyone interested in the countryside and the way things were.
BRIAN Aston was born and brought up in Earlsheaton, near Dewsbury, West Yorkshire where this autobiography begins. The amazing thing about this book is that Brian has a photographic memory and can recall the smallest details from his boyhood. This ability makes the book an important social history of the 20th century.
The story follows Brian, who now lives near Windermere, from his school days to his first work on farms and down the mines – the latter experience nearly killed him in a rock fall. The story continues with National Service in Germany followed by work on the roads before he found his calling in life as a gamekeeper.
The book recounts his experiences working for various estates in Yorkshire, Kent, Wiltshire, Lancashire and Cumbria. There is a great deal of colourful description of the people he knew and of gamekeeping practices. It is an impressive memoir covering the 1930s through to the 1970s when this first part of Brian’s autobiography ends at Edenhall, near Penrith.
In many ways this book documents a lost way of life. It will make fascinating reading for anyone interested in the countryside and the way things were.
