The Naples of England

by Andy Christopher Miller

"A wonderful book by a writer who deserves wide recognition ... anyone yet to read it has a real treat in store ..." - John Lindley, former Cheshire Poet Laureate & Manchester Cathedral Poet of the Year. The War is over and a generation returns home to build peace, determined to create a new society, protected from cradle to grave. On the beautiful Dorset coast, baby boomer, Andy Miller, grows up surrounded by the security and nurture of the 1950s welfare state that will propel him from council estate to university. In a series of vignettes and stories, some humorous and some poignant, the author describes growing up in this vanished post-War world. What happens then when one day, decades later, he discovers that everything he thought was true is not? This is a memoir of family, truth and secrets and what it was like to grow up in Britain in the years following the Second World War. Chris Thompson, writer for radio and TV (including The Archers, Heartbeat, Emmerdale and stand-alone radio plays), described it as "highly recommended" saying that it is "as relevant to a child of the grimy north as to one brought up in coastal Dorset. Time and again I found myself recognising myself in the author's attempts to negotiate family, friendships, romantic stirrings and the occasional, casual cruelties of children. The writing is lovely; lyrical, subtle, original and surprising." "A moving, funny and compelling account of growing up in small-town Britain. The sheer warmth, honesty and fine detail of Miller's writing brings this fascinating memoir vividly to life" - Megan Taylor, Author, 'The Lives Of Ghosts'

155 pages, Paperback

First published August 28, 2015

About the author

Andy Christopher Miller was born in the Lost Children’s Hut on Weymouth Beach, England, in 1946. (The local maternity hospital was full as a result of the post-War ‘baby bulge’, necessitating this temporary overspill arrangement). He can recite almost verbatim the entire content of the adjacent Punch and Judy show.

Andy has been writing since his school days, publishing poetry in his school, then college, and finally national-level magazines culminating in his winning, in 2011, the international Yeovil Literary Prize for Poetry.

He began writing a daily diary in 1967 and this now exceeds ‘War and Peace’ by more than three and a half times. In length if not in literary quality!

As a life long enthusiast for rock climbing, mountaineering, wildernesses and coasts, Andy has published articles in a range of related magazines and journals. He has a long track record of ten books, chapters and journal articles in his professional capacity as a practicing and academic psychologist and an Honorary Professor at the Universities of both Nottingham and Warwick.

He has self-published four books in the past decade:

• ‘Never: A Word’ – a novel set mainly on the Dorset coast and following three generations of women as they grapple with the consequences of family tragedy and secrets through a century of social change.

• ‘The Ragged Weave of Yesterday’ – an examination of the purpose and psychology behind the strange but widespread practice of chronicling a life through personal diary and blog writing.

• ‘The Naples of England’ – a lightly fictionalised memoir and affectionate look at growing up on a council estate in post-War seaside Britain.

• ‘While Giants Sleep’ - an anthology of his published and unpublished essays and poetry.

In all his writing, - fiction and non-fiction, prose and poetry – Andy has explored themes of families and relationships, adventure and resilience, individual psychology and social history.

Reviews

[Judi Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a most interesting memoir of a Baby Boomer growing up in Weymouth, Dorset. Miller was born ‘at the beginning of a New Age. 1946. The world had been scoured, scorched and cleansed at a terrible cost. Chance had chosen me and my generation to be its most fortunate beneficiaries.’ I also believe that to be so. These days we tend to forget how very far from that sort of childhood technology and consumerism have brought us, so it is good to remember those endless days when we were, grubbily, in and of the world around us. I remember similar incidents in my own girlhood. Here are the events that remain in the memory when much has been crowded out by the accumulations of adulthood. Some are of important events, some are quirkier.

This is the sort of book that many people intend to write, even if only for their descendants. Miller had the sense to start collecting information for his before all his sources were gone. Although the memories are vividly those of a lad between 8 and 16, the surrounding detail must have been helped immensely by input from his parents.

Miller is not afraid to dig deeply into his memories. He finds some which are poignant, others which show him in a less favourable light. He is an honest author with a broad palette with which to colour his childhood.

The story of his grandfather creating a ship in a bottle is a delight. We learn with him what he might want to be when he grew up, how he discovered a lifelong enthusiasm for rock-climbing, of endless summer days on a beach so full of holidaymakers it was difficult to find your way back to your own encampment if you went to get an ice-cream, of doing bed and breakfast (in defiance of the tenancy agreement) in a house already stuffed full of family, of comic books and bitterns. He speaks of a trip to Chesil Beach and being awed by the power of the roiling water. He relates how he and others from his school walked fifty miles to show the Headmaster what they were capable of. He writes of the first long-haired youngsters (‘Mohairs’’) arriving in Weymouth and the explorations of philosophy and literature they initiated in him. Then there were UCCA forms and suggested sandwich courses and – at last – a light bulb moment of What To Do When I Grow Up. And, finally: London.

All the names and places have been renamed. Folk living in and around Weymouth will have fun identifying the places he talks about from the geography he describes on his way from here to there.

There is a final chapter which deals with memories from his parents which sets him back on his heels. Two incidents occurred before he was old enough to retain any memory of them himself. But both are huge. And neither was ever spoken of within the family. Miller discusses what he comes to know of the events and one feels his dismay and his need to set this down, so that the people concerned are not forgotten.

**I received a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review**

[P. E. Watts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh! It takes me back!

A wonderful reminisce into times gone by. This book awakened memories of youth I thought were lost. Sensitively observed and written.

[Andy Miller]

This is a video introduction to my book, ‘The Naples of England’ https://youtu.be/Ob90YVEeb2Q

[Bill Bevan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poignant, funny and capturing a time, place and the sorts of relationships families had post-war. I now see Weymouth in a new light.