Longer Days – Memoirs of an Edwardian Childhood and a Rebellious Youth
By Fred Roy
Hazel Roy £12.99

FRED ROY’S death just short of his 92nd birthday left his daughter with a dilemma: what to do with thousands of pages of scribbled notes, diaries and press cuttings, constituting the outline of his memoir. For years they remained in an old chest, until finally pieced together and transcribed during lockdown, creating a fascinating chronicle of a vanished London from 1907 through to 1946.

Roy, a working-class lad, growing up in south London, experienced WWI as a child and WWII as a young adult. His vivid descriptions of life for working-class people in London during the first half of the 20th century conjure up the harsh realities but also the small joys of a care-free life he experienced as a youngster.

The book’s dramatic, full-colour cover, showing a dashing-looking author, a squadron of Nazi bombers, a hammer and sickle and moments from his life, promises an exciting read but the text doesn’t quite live up to that promise.