Book Review - Kevin Bamford - Knocking on Doors

 

Blurb:

Incidents, people and places are evoked with a sure touch as Kevin Bamford recounts recollections of his boyhood in 1940s and 50s Lancashire. From childhood loves to tragedy on the way to a Latin exam, 'Knocking On Doors' is a charming collection of memories and anecdotes with an underlying set of values that can be universally appreciated.

Review:

* A audio version of this book will appear in one of the September Podcasts on Reading in Bed - available on all of the usual places * 

I first met Kevin Bamford the other year who is a local Chorlton Cum Hardy writer through the spoken word open mic circuit in Manchester and has being a regular at the spoken word open mic night I run in this town ‘Speak Easy’ and also pre lockdown in Stretford also.

Kevin is an Ex English Teacher with literally a lifetime of stories to tell and in this book this is what he does with literally dozens of short, sharp stories – mostly no more than a page or so and all are excellent.

All of these cover the earlier parts of his life with his parents right his early life to Blackburn and moving to Liverpool in the 1940s and 1950s and beyond. What is really impressive with these despite they are from a lifetime before mine is the sheer richness of the work and tells so much frequently in such a short moment.

The attention to detail in so many of these stories reminds me a lot off Ivor Cutler the legendary Scottish Poet / Storyteller , although quite different of course with his work on “Life in a Scotch Sitting Room, Vol. 2“.

Like Cutler’s work, Bamford’s work is vivid with an incredible amount of memory which I am sure not I could ever hope to produce even now at the age I am now – take for example the piece ‘Boiled Eggs’ which both made me think of the was making tea back when I was a child with similar experiences over eggs and toast.

What is really impressive again like with Cutler is the economy of phrase in pieces like ‘Embarrassment’ in which the prose in these short tales has a heart told within is close to poetry even though it is not set out in a fiction layout and is well worth your time reading.

10/10 Excellent stuff