‘Don’t forget you are there to sell the books, not get lost in them’.
I left school at fourteen. I had two years training as a dressmaker, but hated every second. There was only one bright spot. With my sixpence pocket money I could pay 2d and borrow a book for seven days from a sweet shop, which had started a lending library. This was before public libraries.
When I finished my two-year apprenticeship, I was asked if I would like to work for a friend of the family who was opening a bookshop in Whitley Bay. Heaven! I was warned by my mother, ‘Don’t forget you are there to sell the books, not get lost in them’.
After leaving school and joining the I.M.P. (Conservative Imperial League) I made lots of friends, some for over sixty years. I bought the house in which I now live in order to be close to two of them. It was so nice to be able to meet up and have a game of Scrabble or Whist. Sadly I am now on my own again.