In pictures: A Blackburn childhood
Joan Potter had such a happy childhood growing up in Blackburn in the 1940s and 50s, that she wrote a book about it!
Two and Two Halves... and a Dog is the result of Joan's musings and covers an 18-year period in which horses and carts were displaced by motor vehicles and children were re-labelled teenagers
An account of a northern childhood, it delivers snapshots not only of one family and one town, but also of a time of social change
Joan shares her memories of home, school and leisure as she travels from infancy through junior and grammar schools to a place at university
In passing she visits places as far apart as Cornwall, the Lake District and Switzerland, but the main location is Blackburn, still a thriving cotton town in 1940 when Joan's story begins
The memories begin with wartime and the departure of her father and two uncles for the RAF, one of them never to return
The hardships of the period form the early background to events important to Joan as her child-sized world expands beyond the enclosed grounds of home to the local area and school
The circle widens as she grows and the family fortunes improve, encompassing people she meets, organisations she joins and town activities
There is grief, joy, humour and family conflict as Joan acquires the attitudes, interests and knowledge she will carry with her as she leaves for university, but always set against the secure background of a loving family
The result is Joan's appreciation of a happy childhood and a bygone way of life
~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~31~RS~)
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