The Great Western Beach is Emma Smith's wonderfully atmospheric memoir of a 1920s childhood in Newquay, Cornwall. She recalls the rocks, the sea, the beaches, the picnics, the teas and pasties, the bracing walks, the tennis tournaments and bathing parties, the curious residents and fascinating holiday-makers - relishing every glorious, salty detail. But above all this is a portrait of a family from the astonishingly clear-eyed perspective of a nine-year-old girl: her furious, frustrated father, perpetually on his way to becoming a world famous artist but suffering the indignity of being a lowly bank clerk; her beautiful, unperceptive mother, made for better things perhaps but at least, with three fiances killed in the Great War, married with children at last; the twins, fearless, defiant Pam and sickly, bewildered Jim, for whom life is always an uphill climb, and baby Harvey, brought on the same winds of change that mean that life, with all its complication and wonder, cannot stay still and the Cornish playground of Emma's childhood will one day be lost forever.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 384
Publisher: Bloomsbury Paperbacks
Published: 01 Jun 2009
ISBN 10: 0747596611
ISBN 13: 9780747596615
Book Overview: A classic childhood memoir for fans of Laurie Lee's Cider with Rosie, Gwen Raverat's Period Piece: A Cambridge Childhood and Xandra Bingley's Bertie, May and Mrs Fish Fans of The Great Western Beach include many bestselling and much loved authors including: Patrick Gale, Lynne Truss, Rosamunde Pilcher, Diana Athill, Susan Hill and Margaret Forster Over 4,200 hardbacks have been sold thorugh BookScan; the paperback has a glorious, nostalgic package, buckets of quotes, fascinating photography, and is a summer promotion proposition for the total market