A Wisp of Smoke

Pope Pius VI had this to say of writing one's memoirs: "In order to write one's reminiscences it is not necessary to be a great man or notorious criminal nor indeed a celebrated artist or statesman.. It is enough to be a simple human being having something to tell and the ability to tell it." Every life story is interesting because we try to enter another person's existence. How they thought, reflected upon the world in which they lived and understand through them what life was like at that particular point of history. The author of this book, now aged 88, ably reflects on his life during the Second World War and also into the 50s and 60s. A world quite incomprehensible to people today so conversant and reliant on electrical devices. It also covers a time in the army and reserve army when both were far larger than they are today. Life working in the city of London, long before the technological revolution known as "Big Bang" which changed the world forever. Also, service as a Justice of the Peace in one of the many courts in London dealing with minor crime, much of it now superseded by CCTV and fixed penalty demands. Chapters on the author's marriage and the interesting houses he lived in are followed by a description of London clubs and livery companies and finally the importance of retaining the Faith throughout turbulent times. The author married the daughter of a recusant famous Catholic family in Leicestershire whose ancestors had maintained the old religion at the time of the Reformation and hidden priests in a secret hiding place to avoid capture. "A Wisp of Smoke" presents an interesting insight of one individual who still remembers vividly days gone by, changed now and forever so dramatically by modern technology.