 Avery. Valerie.: London Morning. , London. William Kimber. 1964.1st edn. Hardback in d/w. 159pp. Cream cloth boards with gilt titles to spine. Minute bumps to spine extrems, otherwise near FINE uninscribed copy. In VG unclipped d/w with one small internally repaired split to head of spine and a couple of tiny chips to top edge of back cover. A very presentable copy. Valerie Avery was brought up in a scruffy house which was ' slowly dying in a back turning off the Old Kent Road' ; she was a bright, observant child as so many children born in London are and she did not miss much in the difficult business of living in wartime and postwar London. She was five when the war ended ; her father had been killed in action early in 1945 and peacetime made little difference to the struggle for existence. She was just one among many other children who had to reach maturity in the twilight years following the war. But Valerie Avery was unusual in one thing-she had the ability to set down her experiences on paper. She unfolds her autobiography with astonishing clarity, the events are described as they seemed to her at the time. Her pen is not always kind-she has the sharp perception of youth and there is an earthy humour in the writing ; some of the incidents seem exaggerated, seen through the magnifying eyes of a child. But at the beginning of the story she was only an intelligent small girl with few friends among her contemporaries and at the end she is an adolescent who has not quite come to terms with growing up. (Book ref. 3857 ) £ 30.00 The payment methods accepted by the seller, The Old Station Pottery & Bookshop , are shown in the right-hand column. |
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