SKU: 48388908995

Born in '44

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Born in '44An interesting and often entertaining recollection of twenty post war years between 1944 and 1964 told from the perspective of an English boy growing up on a Surrey council estate. Based mainly around Ashtead, Epsom and Leatherhead it recounts some frequently hilarious and occasionally hair raising childhood escapades, followed by typical teenage testing of the boundaries and emerging sexuality. The memoire includes school years, entering the world of

An interesting and often entertaining recollection of twenty post-war years between 1944 and 1964 told from the perspective of an English boy growing up on a Surrey council estate.
Based mainly around Ashtead, Epsom and Leatherhead it recounts some frequently hilarious and occasionally hair-raising childhood escapades, followed by typical teenage testing of the boundaries and emerging sexuality.
The memoire includes school years, entering the world of work, discovering girls and then running off to sea as a steward with P&O which was a very steep learning curve.
This was followed by just under a year in the Metroplitan Police and all before the age of twenty.
The book also represents an informative piece of Surrey social history and is likely to appeal to anyone who lived through the same period and especially if in the same locality. Nostalgia for the older reader and an interesting insight for the young.

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SKU: 48388908995

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4.3 ★★★★★
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G. Hodnett
San Leandro, US
★★★★★ 3
Your milage will vary
Format: Paperback
Some great ideas in this story but it didn't really work for me. But I know others have loved it..
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Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2025
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Joanne Hale
San Leandro, US
★★★★★ 2
The hype it did not live up to
Format: Paperback
I guess I expected more. I found it kind of boring and un inspiring. I enjoyed the food twist and even the characters, but it was very underwhelming. and I'm sorry about this review, because I really really wanted to love it.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 30, 2025
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John J. Shea
Battle Creek, US
★★★★★ 5
A thoroughly-researched, thoughtful, and nuanced work about the 1692 Salem withcraft panic.
Format: Paperback
This graphic novel recounts the 1692 Salem (Massachusetts) witchcraft panic that engulfed Salem, Salem Village (now Danvers), and adjacent communities. About two dozen men and women were convicted and hanged, one was pressed to death (tortured) to try to force him to acknowledge the Court’s authority. That man was Giles Corey, aged 80. The book focuses on him, but it covers others among the accused and executed as well as on the judges, politicians, and other involved. (No so much on the accusers and their motives.). The narrative plays out chronologically with interstitial vignettes in which 19th Century literary figures Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wander around Salem during the 1800s discussing the trials and their legacy. (Hawthorne lived in Salem for a time and was a descendant or the Court of Oyer and Terminer Judge Hathorne.). The work concludes with a chapter, More Wonders of the Invisible World, that follows how Salem developed economically up to the present day in which witchcraft-related Halloween tourism turns Salem town into arguably the least attractive “tourist attraction” on Cape Ann. (Do not skip this chapter, it is engrossing.) An extensive series of endnotes provide scholarly references and background information. The artwork veers back and forth between caricatures (the 17th century events) and realism (19th century and onwards). In both cases the line art is exquisite. The text includes quotes from transcripts of the trials and other contemporary documents as well as fictional dialog. Wickey worked on this book for more than a decade, and it shows in his thorough scholarship. This is, in all seriousness, Pulitzer/Eisner-level work. Wickey was born in Beverly and resides on Cape Ann. Most of us born and raised on the “North Shore” learn about the Salem witchcraft panic in high school -often as a cautionary tale about politics, spectral evidence, and what we would today call “lawfare.” I thought I knew a fair amount about the 1692 panic, but I learned something new with nearly every other page. I was especially glad to see Wickey cover now-debunked ergot-poisoning theory and that he dismissed the vile slander that some among the convicted and executed were actually witches. There’s nothing really “missing” from the book, though one wishes one could learn more about the fates of the accusers other than Ann Putnam. That their motives appear to have been “sport” is bone-chilling fully three centuries later. Read her "apology" years later and try not to think, "psychopath." At 500 plus pages, it's too long to read at one setting, but it is a pleasure to read at shorter intervals.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 26, 2025
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Salvatore P. Vasta
Port Orchard, US
★★★★★ 5
Masterpiece
Format: Kindle
It has been said that any work of literature should be gauged upon how much the work makes the reader think. Ben Wickey has certainly achieved this - in spades - as one of the “civilised” world’s most frightening episodes is revisited with respect and thoughtfulness on the human condition.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2026
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Jessica Richart
Grantham, US
★★★★★ 5
Books
Format: Paperback
I bought this book for my husband as a Christmas present and he enjoyed the book!
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Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2026

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