Publisher's Synopsis
This is the second book of a sequel by the author, and is largely an account of the life of my late father, Harold Octavius Hutchinson, and of the unique village where he grew up, Percy Main, set on the north bank of the River Tyne, between Newcastle and Tynemouth. The village is bordered on the east by the town of North Shields, which also featured in the life of my dad's ancestors. Shields, as it is known locally, was a very busy centre for shipbuilding and a whole variety of manufactures which expanded greatly at the height of the Industrial Revolution in the Nineteenth Century and which provided employment for my forefathers. The book traces my dad's family roots, describes the fortunes/misfortunes of his parents and their family, and provides an insight into the enterprising nature of the families as they tried to cope with the difficult living conditions they faced, especially the prevalence of poverty and ill-health in the community. The book then traces my dad's departure from Percy Main not so long after the premature death of both his parents, his brief period of employment in London and then his enlistment in the 8th Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment soon after the onset of World War Two. Following an account of the training that my dad and his fellow soldiers underwent, the book then traces my dad's D-Day Landing and his Battalion's advancement across France and Belgium towards Germany in 1944 as the Allies' pincer-action gives them an advantage over German forces. Following my dad's injury later in 1944, he is then repatriated, and the book then describes his demobilisation at the end of the war in Europe, his marriage, the arrival of two children and the commencement of a new life in the East of England. Then, with a deepening family rift, the account then follows my dad as he finds employment on major civil engineering projects away from home before his return signals the departure of his wife - my mother - on a one-way ticket to London. The account then closes with my dad taking up horticultural employment in our home-village before retiring and eventually moving to a neighbouring village to see out the remainder of his days. Because the book is a sequel, the account picks up on where my first book left off in relation to my working-life in London and other locations, living with- and eventually caring for my late mother.
