The Boy From The Black Country

This book describes social life in the industrial working class just after World War II and illustrates the move from working class into middle class. Ken, the fourth of eight children, describes the games children played, the transition from gas and paraffin lighting to electricity and the impact of poverty and bullying. The first to go to university, Ken describes the reality of academic life and even a brush with royalty. He also gives an account of various industrial roles, his deep experience of the height of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, a visiting professorship at the University of Illinois at the time of Watergate, and the move from "old" university life to "new" university life.