X4 The Old Rebel - A Life in Nuneaton 1885-1960

George Leonard Clarke wrote down the story of his life, in beautiful copperplate writing with a fountain pen, between July 1956 and January 1957. Now, over half a century later, his grandson, David Sidwell (a NNWFHS member), has used the original handwritten notes to produce this remarkable book.

George led an eventful life. Aged 13 he worked for the legendary Nuneaton Photographer, Clare Speight. Then he travelled to South Africa to work, only to find that his sponsor had been murdered. Returning to Nuneaton, he worked at Stanley's brickyard and then as a miner at Nuneaton Colliery where he was buried in a roof fall and trapped for 48 hours. Amongst his other occupations, he ran a pub, a club, and a shop, and worked as an usher at a cinema and a debt collector for a brewery.

His life was full of humour and the book is full of hilarious stories of old Nuneaton characters, but he was never far from tragedy, losing two young children to illness and accident and living through the depression and two world wars.

"As memoirs go, this is as good as it gets and the nearest you will come to to experiencing what Nuneaton was really like 100 years ago. George is a great story teller, and if you love a good yarn, this is the book for you"  Peter Lee, Chairman, NNWFHS

The book contains more than 300 hundred pages and one hundred photographs.