The Boy From Rod Alley - John Loveday

The Boy from Rod Alley is an account of a 1930s childhood. This depiction of one boy's experience blends into a story of a decade, in the aftermath of the Great War, as ex-soldiers ride their old army bikes, `widow-women' are familiar figures and `Umbrella Joe' paces in shell-shock aimlessness.

John guides readers past the deep pond in front of the house, both feared and loved, with surrounding willows simultaneously familiar and a challenge.

The great village Green, with a mixture of humble or imposing dwellings, and school, church, chapels, shops, a smithy, and his family agricultural-engineering workshop and foundry around its edge, holds delights or threats.

At each of its five corners, a road leads to other places which also become part of the story, a warren, lake, small stream, villages, small towns, the city of Norwich, the latter increasingly alluring as he grows. And from other places come strangers or familiar visitors. Among them, as among the `locals', some are memorable.