Before The Fire by Leslie Retallick
A novel set in Torquay in the Aprils of two different years: 1898 and a year in the second decade of the 21st century.
LESLIE RETALLICK WRITES: I was born in Hornchurch, Essex, one of the London suburbs that had spread out like a rash from the capital. When I was six my family moved to Rugby in Warwickshire, where I was educated. During my school days I developed a total lack of interest in all forms of sport through spending hours in the freezing cold on the school playing fields, but I did develop a passion for history by taking part in an archaeological excavation at the nearby Roman site of Tripontium. Our family moved again when I was seventeen to Torquay, where my parents bought a corner shop. Several years later, having tired of delivering boxes of groceries to the local hotels, I took a summer seasonal job at Torre Abbey, an historic house and art gallery in Torquay, which led to a full-time senior post during a thirty-six-year association with that building. There I expanded my interest in local history and have had a number of books and articles published on that subject. Later I became a full-time carer for my by then elderly and very frail parents until they both passed away, after which I used the caring skills I had acquired in those five years to become a primary carer for a seriously disabled local lady, to whom this book is dedicated. I am an avid photographer, a keen railway modeller, and passionate about local history, my knowledge of which underpins this novel.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781912788187 |
| ISBN 10 | 1912788187 |
| Title | Before The Fire |
| Author | Leslie Retallick |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Colenso Books |
| Year published | 2021-11-30 |
| Number of pages | 458 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |