Just a Pompey Boy: Memories of growing up in Portsmouth - volume one 1949 -1955

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In the dying days of World War Two, a child is born amidst a dramatic air raid that damages the family home and destroys the midwife’s bicycle, or so George East’s mother claimed. She also insisted that a painting-by-numbers picture of sunflowers in their passageway could be a preparatory sketch by Vincent Van Gogh. Eccentric and beloved, she boasted of royal blood, asserting that her ancestor, not Captain Hardy, received Lord Nelson’s dying kiss aboard HMS Victory. In this memoir, the best-selling author reflects on his childhood in Portsmouth just after WWII, a time when modern comforts like fitted carpets and central heating seemed like science fiction. With humor and warmth, East captures the essence of growing up in a war-battered city that served as the nation’s premier naval base. He recalls a world where bomb damage became adventure playgrounds, food rationing was still in effect, and concepts like post-traumatic stress and health regulations were unheard of. As he notes, the past may feel like a foreign country; for today’s youth, this tale of a distant yet golden childhood might seem like life on another planet.