HUG A BOOK with Harry Leslie Smith

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It’s HUG A BOOK and this weekend it’s with Harry Leslie Smith

And

You could win a Kindle copy of

1923: A Memoir

  

Meet Harry

Harry Leslie Smith - was born in Barnsley Yorkshire in 1923. After a stormy and chaotic youth; he joined the RAF in 1941. Smith eventually ended up in occupied Hamburg Germany at the end of the Second World War. He remained part of the peace time RAF until 1947 whereupon, he married and decamped back to Yorkshire with his new bride. Six years of post war England were enough for Harry and his bride and they decided to emigrate to the greener pastures of Canada.

In Canada, Harry Smith worked in the oriental carpet trade.He specialized in designing and importing unique rug creations from all over the Middle East, the former Soviet Block, and Afghanistan.

Since his time in the second world war, Harry Leslie Smith has been an avid reader and writer; who at 89 has found a keen interest in social media and connecting the stories of his past with contemporary audiences.
Currently, he divides his time between Canada, Great Britain, and Portugal.

  

Details of 1923: A Memoir

To say that Harry Smith was born under an unlucky star would be an understatement. Born in England

in 1923, Smith chronicles the tragic story of his early life in this first volume of his memoirs. He presents his family's early history--their misfortunes and their experiences of enduring betrayal, inhumane poverty, infidelity, and abandonment. 1923: A Memoir presents the story of a life lyrically described, capturing a time both before and during World War II when personal survival was dependent upon luck and guile. During this time, failure insured either a trip to the workhouse or burial in a common grave. Brutally honest, Smith's story plummets to the depths of tragedy and flies up to the summit of mirth and wonder, portraying real people in an uncompromising, unflinching voice. 1923: A Memoir tells of a time and place when life, full of raw emotion, was never so real.

 Available for Kindle

  

Excerpt

My sister and I were children of the one true Church which took its orders from the Vatican. We were commanded by God’s earthly representatives to arise, early, each Sunday and dress in clean, presentable clothes. On Sundays, mam stayed late in bed while Dad always escaped our ritual with an early morning walk. After breakfast of a shared piece of stale toast, my sister would clean my face and hands with an old soapy dishrag. Until the age of six, I had been excluded and shielded from religious penance and paying homage to Jesus snug in his heaven. So I was mystified and frustrated by this weekly occurrence of stomping across city streets with stores shuttered and bolted. I was envious of our town’s well-fed but less-devout brethren who were still wrapped up warm in their beds, while my sister and I traversed, two or three miles to the parish cathedral.
In front of St. Joseph’s, we lined up with other hungry children from our school and from other parochial establishments in the parish. We formed neat lines and rows designated by age and classroom. Nuns, from the Sisters of the Cross and Passion barked up and down the street like sergeant majors at inspection. They pulled and dragged sleepy eyed worshippers into their correct drill formation. Nuns, in wimples and long black gowns, impenetrable to human emotions and suffering, demanded silence. Nuns commanded while pulling ears or twisting arms that there was to be order and no shuffling of feet. They ordered us to demonstrate reverence, for the Holy Father and for the Church. The street was a parade ground of regimented child soldiers for Christ. We were twisted in military boxed squares, divided and codified by our school and by our level of education. All of us, impatiently waited to be marched into Sunday Mass and confession. “Father, forgive me, for it has been seven days since my last confession and I have had impure thoughts about my pudding for tea.” I was seven then when I shivered before the entrance to God’s Holy House, in Bradford.

Harry’s Links

Add all your links

Website is http://www.1923thebook.ca/
Twitter account is@1923Memoir 

FB fan page is: http://www.facebook.com/pages/1923-A-Memoir/105716109482942
Book trailer is: http://youtu.be/w2NNYgyNrkQ

Link to 1923http://www.amazon.co.uk/1923-Memoir-Lies-Testaments-ebook/dp/B0060CKF52/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1327435399&sr=1-1

Question

Harry celebrated a special birthday this week, what was special about it?

Answers in the comments and good luck!

You can now watch the Trailer