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Surviving the might of the Luftwaffe’s attacks on Hawkers aerodrome and the doodlebug flying bombs, the Langley Boy is an eyewitness account of a working class boy, growing up in the rural village of Langley, Buckinghamshire, during the period of wartime austerity and rationing until the more prosperous Rock ‘n Roll years. It is a boy’s own story of gang warfare, trolley racing and escapades in an adventure playground of a rubbish dump, a surplus army vehicle compound, the Grand Union canal, a gravel pit, cherry orchards and open meadowland. On a more sombre note, it deals with the tug-of-war relationship with a neurotic mother and an alienated father, their jealousies, harshness, love and affection. It provides a perspective on the strict teaching regimes at Langley primary and junior schools and the overpowering influence of the dreaded 11+ examination. It describes family weddings with aunts dressed in flamboyant hats, and annual family holidays on the beach at Jaywick Sands and Llandudno. It recalls the memorable Saturday morning trips to the Granada cinema to see Roy Rogers, Laurel and Hardy and the delights of boys’ comics, and it relives the thrills and spills at Pelham’s fair and Langley fete, festive bonfire night celebrations, the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth the 2nd and the advent of television. The painful voyage from boyhood to manhood takes place at Slough Grammar School for Boys, marked by the struggle to master the sciences with ultimate academic and sporting success in the sixth form. It covers the social impact of the Teddy boy era, the influence of the church, the advent of pop music with Bill Haley and Lonnie Donegan and life behind the bar at the North Star public house in Slough. In short, the book is about a boy’s determination to escape from his roots.
