A bank full of memories

AUTHOR Dr Colin Sidaway’s illustrated account of a father walking along the towpath with his young son had me wondering from the word go whether it was autobiographical in any way.

Such is the way he brings the past to life that it seems too realistic for a novel – but that’s what it is. Colin tells the tale of Walsall posh kid Josh Woodward, who is sent by his father to learn valuable life experience before entering the family leather business in the 1930s.

The story is set a couple of decades later, by which time the canals are in decline and a way of life has all but disappeared. Josh’s reminiscences as they walk the towpath prompt questions from his 10-year-old son Oliver which take him back to the years before the war and to wonder what happened to some of the characters he met along the way.

There are also descriptions of the routes and places visited by the Black Country boatpeople with their motor and butty. Many of these are well-known by boaters and are illustrated using photographs taken by the author’s late friend John Haddock in the local area. All the slides in his collection are now in the Walsall Archive.

Colin Sidaway was born in Lye in 1938 but moved up to Yorkshire in the mid-1980s and now lives in Harrogate. His interests include industrial archaeology, transport history and story writing.

For more information about the author and current titles see the advertisement for Sidaway Publications in the Christmas Gift Guide, pages 45 to 47.

A Kid off the Bank by Dr Colin Sidaway (published by Sidaway Publications, softback 135 pages, £7.99).

ISBN: 978-1- 9163934-2-4