A Wigan Childhood is a happy marriage of personal memoir and local history. With great warmth and wit, John Taylor paints a vivid picture of knee-high life in the 1950s, an era that many Wiganers will remember with clarity and fondness. Indeed, this book will be a sheer delight for anyone who recalls (or loves to read about) a time when Mondays meant the smell of boiling washing; when net curtains twitched in the hope of witnessing scandal; homemade brakeless go-karts terrorised old ladies; cinema lights shone on every corner; and the air was filled with the competing aromas of coal dust, meat and potato pies and Uncle Joe's mintballs. In a tremendously entertaining style, and with real honesty, the author tells not only of his own childhood but also reveals the stories - skeletons and all! - of generations of his family. The portrayals of austere aunts, black-clad grandmothers, naughty boys and a myriad of other characters will have readers nodding in recognition, and laughing out loud at some of their tales and exploits. And to set the whole lot in context, John has woven skillfully into the narrative the history of the town itself, right back to earliest times, making this book a truly rounded evocation of a much-loved Lancashire town, and a must for all who know it. 'A thoroughly engaging book to be read and treasured'