Back to the Tamar
Back to the Tamar: Country Tales from Early Post-War Days
Following the success of his present-day stories in Looking Towards the Tamar, in this new anthology Ted Sherrell looks back to the early post-war years. He captures the period of the 1950s brilliantly, with inspired stories of country folk, some of whom he has loosely based on characters he remembers from his childhood.
There is still considerable austerity, with wartime rationing only just being phased out, and people’s lives still affected by the previous decade’s hostilities. Yet, as the new decade progresses, there awakens a sense of exciting beginnings and a chance for modernisation and a better life. It is from this background that these country tales evolve, with the old farmer on the brink of embracing the combustion engine, a taxi driver talking to his car as if it were his old horse and rarely moving faster than the animal would, and the firemen who need to update their drill from that of dealing with the Blitz.
Always drawing his inspiration from real life, Ted Sherrell brings a mixture of humour, idiosyncrasy and occasional tragedy within these tales, once again reflecting his great knowledge of the Tamar area and the humanity of the many characters that have evolved from it.
Size: 212x135mm
ISBN: Paperback: 9781852001681 / Hardback: 9781852001636
Length: 225pp
About the author:
Ted Sherrell
Born and educated in West Devon, Ted Sherrell has had an interesting and most diverse working career; past work including being a civil servant, newspaper reporter, fireman, factory worker, door-to-door salesman, insurance agent, shopkeeper, proofreader and as a business adviser calling principally on farms in Devon and Cornwall.
A farmer’s son, he has worked amongst and been around the farming and rural communities of Devonshire for most of his life. He draws greatly upon this background – plus his various working experiences – when writing his novels and short stories.
In past years he gained an Honours Degree in History through a correspondence course and, as well as his writing career, Ted Sherrell was for many years involved in local government as a member of Tavistock Town Council, where in 2013 he was made the first ever Freeman of Tavistock. He has also been a member of West Devon Borough Council and is a Justice of the Peace.
