About My Father's Business

by Lillian Beckwith

Lillian Beckwith takes us back to her childhood; to the years before the Second World War, when her father ran a small grocer's shop in a Cheshire town.

It was typical of so many corner shops - the shops that are now more and more becoming just a memory, overwhelmed by redevelopment and the march of the supermarket. The corner shop where customers were known, often friends, people, not just faces at a checkout point, where shopping was gossipy, unhurried. A shop full of remembered smells of childhood: soft soap, aniseed balls, bacon and tea.

A shop that is brought to life by the acute, affectionate memories of the little girl who grew up in it.

Genres: Nonfiction, Autobiography, Memoir

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Lilian Comber wrote fiction and non-fiction for both adults and children under the pseudonym Lillian Beckwith. She is best known for her series of comic novels based on her time living on a croft in the Scottish Hebrides.

Beckwith was born in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, in 1916, where her father ran a grocery shop. The shop provided the background for her memoir About My Father's Business, a child’s eye view of a 1920s family. She moved to the Isle of Skye with her husband in 1942, and began writing fiction after moving to the Isle of Man with her family twenty years later. She also completed a cookery book, Secrets from a Crofter’s Kitchen (Arrow, 1976).

Since her death, Beckwith’s novel A Shine of Rainbows has been made into a film starring Aidan Quinn and Connie Nielsen, which in 2009 won ‘Best Feature’ awards at the Heartland and Chicago Children’s Film Festivals.

Reviews

[Shauna · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very enjoyable account by Lillian Beckwith of her formative years growing up in Ellesmere Port in Cheshire. Her parents decided to buy and run a corner shop in the town centre and this book gives an interesting look at life in a small northern town in the inter war years.

[Adele · Rating 3 out of 5]

Told with equal sharpness of observation as her Tales from Bruach. Sadly the end of terrace community hub affectionately described here is consigned to a past that will, I imagine, be alien to a whole generation of readers more familiar with self service chain convenience stores. But for me they brought back happy “corner shop” memories of Goldings, the grocers next door to my grandparents house and Coopers where my mum happily worked hard and often cold hours (the shop door being propped wide regardless of the weather to show they were OPEN for business) as a shop assistant.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable, easy relaxing reading. No major events however an excellent reflection of life at the time of writing.

[Izzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author tells stories of her childhood, much of which was spent at her father’s corner grocery store. (Cheshire, England, between WWI-WWII)

[Liz · Rating 1 out of 5]

As it's set in my home town, I was expecting to be wonderful history book with interesting facts. I was a little disappointed with it not sure if it because had some high expectations or just felt like the author was rambling about her past.

Dont think I'll be reading anymore of her books.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a long time since I first read this book. I enjoy the author's keen memory for the sights, sounds and smells of keeping a grocery store in a small town in Britain in the early 1900s.

[Johann Rossouw · Rating 3 out of 5]

remembered smells of childhood: soft soap, aniseed balls, bacon and tea - and much more!

[Jenny Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Memories of a childhood spent in her father’s grocery shop. Gentle, innocent, entertaining and easy to read. Above all, very enjoyable.

[Trisha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lillian Beckwith is best known for her series of memoirs that recapture what it was like living in a tiny village in the Hebrides. But in this book she takes us back to the years when her father ran a small corner grocery store in a rural English village during the years in between the two world wars. It’s a charming book filled with fascinating details about a way of life that has completely vanished – a time when nothing came pre-packaged and everything had to be carefully weighed and measured or sliced and trimmed to the customer’s satisfaction and then carefully wrapped in paper that was tied with string from a special dispenser that hung above the cash register. The grocer’s shop was the center of the community and everyone knew everyone else – although that wasn’t always such a good thing. A quick and delightful read, this is the kind of book that keeps my Anglophile heart happy and makes me homesick for a way of life I’ve never known. But even though it sounds quaint and charming most likely I wouldn't really have found life in a tiny little village in the twenties and thirties nearly as much fun to live as it is to read about.

[Iain Watson]

About My Father's Business by Lillian Beckwith (1971)

[Samantha Parker]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/7333944

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

about her childhood and her father's general store. Lillian Beckwith is a good storyteller.