Description
In this unusual book, part fiction, part autobiography, Mr. Percy Coates, a miner from the Derbyshire coalfields, re-creates the world of his boyhood and early manhood. He tells of a strong friendship between two Yorkshire lads, who have both run away in search of fortune; of their struggle to keep themselves by selling papers in the streets of Leeds; their long, adventurous wanderings, interrupted by spells of fruit-picking, work with a railroad gang, coal-mining and fairgound fighting, which bring them at last to London and the exciting, rowdy life of the professional boxer; and the eventual parting of their ways. Mr. Coates, whose style retains the flavour of the popular idiom of his home country, writes with a rare warmth and tenderness: nothing could be further from the harsh realism characteristic of so many books of similar intention published in recent years than this story of youth in all its dreams and battles, which has something of the fresh, spontaneous quality of a traditional ballad.
Hardcover, 240 pages. In good pre-loved condition with the exception of some stains to the back of the dustcover, a name on the first page, and some yellowing to pages.