|
This novel is set between the years 2006 and 2008 with a background of Work, Family, Saving the NHS and Rugby League.
Much of the action continues to take place in the drawing office of the Wilkinson's Engineering Company and in the fictional South Lancashire town of Ashurst.
She knows a great deal about the world of international high finance and frequently tells her workmates about derivatives, commodity trading, swaps, futures, currency trading and short selling.
Alan is still in charge of the Drawing Office while Jennifer the electrical design engineer from the North East regularly explains
how the world economy works for the few not the many and at a time when the banking crisis is threatening everybody who lives
in Ashurst.
He and Thelma still live in Silkstone Street and have three grandchildren, unfortunately all of them are still too young to be
taken to watch the Saints.
Northern humour runs right through the novel but it is also accompanied by some sad stories and particularly when Thelma tells her five year old grandaughter Joanna that when she
was a little girl, she had no mummy and daddy.
Among some of the chapter titles are included
The Jehovah's Widnes
Lord Beeching has been beaten before
“Why are you still voting Labour?”
Pissaro, Picasso and Phil's Uncle Jack
The Welsh Chamber Maid
Telling Stevo about Uno's Dabs
Watch your language young lady
Your mother grew up in Tiger Bay
I hope that Guy Fawkes is standing
The lady from Sint-Jans-Molenbeek
CID are now involved
Callaghanism and neo Liberalism
The Ashurst Poetry Group
The day Harold Wilson was in Paris
|
Alan chipped in to say that his favourite wordsmith was Tommy Cooper: “I'm on a whiskey diet. I've lost three days already” and then “I saw the doctor yesterday
and asked him if he had anything for wind and he gave me a kite.” Then Tariq quoted Groucho Marx saying “Please accept my resignation. I don't want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member.”
The next to chip in was Colin with a couple of quotes from Billy Connolly.
“Why should I learn algebra. I'm never likely to go there” and “Why do people say that their eyes are not what they used to be. What did they used to be, ears or
Wellington boots?”
But as always Jennifer managed to get the last word in when she quoted Groucho Marx saying
“Why should I care about posterity. What's posterity ever done for me?”
|
“Has Joanna being telling you about her new school, Mum and her best friend
Marsha?”
“Yes. It seems that Marsha comes from a South Asian background. She said
her skin was brown all over and she talks in a funny way.”
“I've met her and her mother and as soon as they started talking, I could tell
that they didn't come from round here.”
“Do they both sound like Peter Sellers, then?”
“No. They both sound like Peter Kay. They used to live in Blackburn before
they came here.” |
“What's Cheryl doing now. Is she married yet?”
“No. But her and her partner have got two kids. He's a lovely bloke. Frank they
call him and as far as I can see there's only one thing wrong with him.”
“What's that?”
“He follows Wigan.” |
“Ray Hewitt was the first boy I ever went out with. I often wonder what
happened to him.”
“Come to our next meeting and you'll see how little or how much he has
changed since then.”
“I hope that he has changed a bit since then. I hope that he has changed a lot
since then. The last time that I went out with him, his idea of a date was to take me
train spotting at Sutton Oak sheds.” |
|