Weymouth Childhood in the 1950s

A Weymouth Childhood in the 1950s tells the autobiographical story of life for a boy growing up in a seaside guesthouse in the austerity period: food rationing, bomb damage, but also fun, laughs and larks in this picturesque seaside town. Just after the war, the author's parents took him and his three siblings from bomb-shattered London and moved into a dilapidated house on Trinity Road, near Weymouth Harbour, to run a guesthouse. The author recounts stories of the renovation of this big house (St Pierre, or 'Som Pee Air' as it was affectionately known), of the guests, the ghosts, the paddle steamers, and the theft of the full-sized grizzly bear that stood in front of the house opposite, among many other tales. In among memories of his own childhood, the author deftly paints a larger picture of the history of Weymouth. Wit and a flair for including interesting detail result in a varied and amusing account. Sometimes funny, sometimes touching, the memories contained within the pages of this book are always fascinating.