Soldiering on with

TOMORROW WILL BE A GOOD DAY

YOU remember, of course, Captain Tom, the centenarian who did 100 laps of his back garden to raise money for the NHS at the beginning of the Covid- 19 outbreak.

While politicians panicked, the old soldier “did his bit” and inspired us to open our purses to the breathexhaling tune of £ 38.9 million.

Someone as cynical as a historian might suggest, given the NHS has supplanted Anglicanism as our national religion, that donating was transactional: we gave in case we, by whim of a virus, needed a ventilator.

Anyway, Captain Tom entered our hearts and the Guinness World

Records as the most successful charity fundraiser of all time. Other plaudits followed nearly daily. Notably, he was knighted by the Queen.

Five months on, here is his autobiography. I confess I expected another hasty, vacuous “celeb” memoir. On the contrary, this is a riveting account of the British lower- middle class in the 20th century as refracted through the experiences of one man.

Tom is as sharp as a bayonet, with good patter ( well, he was once a travelling salesman for Woman’s Own), while a bit of ghostly

HERO: Tom Moore in his Army days and as a centenarian

help from author Wendy Holden never goes amiss.

Moore was born into a world long gone, of Monday washdays and knitted swimsuits. His “tidy” family ran a building company in Keighley so there was food enough to avoid the despair of the Thirties. Not that his childhood was untroubled: his favourite uncle committed suicide and Tom himself contracted scarlet fever. But a little fever did not “carry me off”.