"1923" is uplifting and highly recommended. --Midwest Book Review

[1923]

It's a personal as well as a social history. Smith has the knack of bringing the times to life in a way that few writers can manage. It's the ability to tell a story, the knowledge of when to move on & not labour a point.--The Bookbag

1923 is a book that succeeds in two ways with ease, both as a personal memoir of a life lived in a volatile age and as a record of that age for all time. --The Current Reader

"1923" is uplifting and highly recommended.  --Midwest Book Review

1923: A Memoir is a protest against social injustice, corruption, war, famine, poverty, and societies blinded by greed. More importantly, it is the story of hope and the notion that anything can be overcome if desired.  --The Publishing Guru
Product Description
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.

http://www.amazon.com/1923-Memoir-Lies-Testaments-ebook/dp/B0060CKF52/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1321364944&sr=1-2

[Ann in Arlington]

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[1923]

Highly Acclaimed 1923: A Memoir now just 99 cents



New Year, 1945
Confined to camp on New Year’s Eve, we sang Auld Lang Syne at the chime of midnight and toasted the year to come. During the first days and then weeks of January, we waited in disjointed apprehension to deploy to Europe. After a while, we thought our captain had played a cruel prank on us. He promised us in December a mission in Europe and a greater role in this war, and it now seemed as fanciful as Meade’s desert premonitions. We waited and asked our sergeants, “You’ll know when you know,” was the answer.

We waited and Warsaw fell to the Russians. We waited impatiently and the death marches began for the near-lifeless prisoners of the concentration camps. We waited while the Germanic retreat of volks deutch began, from the Eastern, Hanseatic fortresses of Lithuania, Latvia, and Pomerania. Over two million Aryan refugees limped across the snow or sailed in over-laden ships across the icy Baltic. While underneath the slushy sea, Russian submarines hungrily trawled the waters in vengeful wait. The Soviet Army liberated Auschwitz and we waited. For parts of Holland still under German occupation, “The Hunger Winter” was now in its fifth month and the citizens were reduced to consuming tulip bulbs and boiling shoe leather for nutrients. We waited anxious, ignorant, and callow for Europe.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0060CKF52

[1923]

1923: A Memoir just 99 cents for the Holidays. Harry Leslie Smith's true account of life in Great Depression Britain and WW2


It's a personal as well as a social history. Smith has the knack of bringing the times to life in a way that few writers can manage. It's the ability to tell a story, the knowledge of when to move on & not labour a point.--The Bookbag

1923 is a book that succeeds in two ways with ease, both as a personal memoir of a life lived in a volatile age and as a record of that age for all time. --The Current Reader


"1923" is uplifting and highly recommended.  --Midwest Book Review


1923: A Memoir is a protest against social injustice, corruption, war, famine, poverty, and societies blinded by greed. More importantly, it is the story of hope and the notion that anything can be overcome if desired.  --The Publishing Guru

Smith stays true to himself and his inner voice as he recounts the events of his early life.-Feeding My Book Addiction
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.

[1923]

1923: A Memoir Lies and Testaments Just 99 cents this Holiday Season!



http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0060CKF52  1923: A Memoir Just 99 cents!

It's a personal as well as a social history. Smith has the knack of bringing the times to life in a way that few writers can manage. It's the ability to tell a story, the knowledge of when to move on & not labour a point.--The Bookbag

1923 is a book that succeeds in two ways with ease, both as a personal memoir of a life lived in a volatile age and as a record of that age for all time. --The Current Reader


"1923" is uplifting and highly recommended.  --Midwest Book Review


1923: A Memoir is a protest against social injustice, corruption, war, famine, poverty, and societies blinded by greed. More importantly, it is the story of hope and the notion that anything can be overcome if desired.  --The Publishing Guru
Smith stays true to himself and his inner voice as he recounts the events of his early life.-Feeding My Book Addiction

1923: A Prologue
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 dish-rag. 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.

[1923]

Harry Leslie Smith's true account of life in Great Depression Britain and WW2 still just 99 cents



http://www.amazon.com/1923-Memoir-Lies-Testaments-ebook/dp/B0060CKF52/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1325884433&sr=1-1


It's a personal as well as a social history. Smith has the knack of bringing the times to life in a way that few writers can manage. It's the ability to tell a story, the knowledge of when to move on & not labour a point.
--The Bookbag

1923 is a book that succeeds in two ways with ease, both as a personal memoir of a life lived in a volatile age and as a record of that age for all time. --The Current Reader

"1923" is uplifting and highly recommended.  --Midwest Book Review

1923: A Memoir is a protest against social injustice, corruption, war, famine, poverty, and societies blinded by greed. More importantly, it is the story of hope and the notion that anything can be overcome if desired.  --The Publishing Guru

"Smith stays true to himself and his inner voice as he recounts the events of his early life."-Feeding My Book Addiction
From the Back Cover
The sky is clear. I am in the back of a truck, in a long convoy of vehicles. We are moving like an enormous centipede up a two lane road. There are 15 men in each lorry. Woodbine cigarettes and Capstans dangle from our mouths. The straps to our tin helmets hang loosely around our chins. We are cocksure and unafraid. We are survivors and conquerors pushing our way through northern Germany. Opposite our convoy, there is an endless procession of refugees. They are pushing their scant possessions in hand carts or dragging along worn luggage with ropes wrapped around them. The procession contained men and women, the young and the old. Thin, cadaverous horses followed the throng dragging their hoofs in the thin soil beside the road. The jetsam was a mixture of forced labourers, ex prisoners, ex concentration camp inmates and the Diaspora from Germany's eastern provinces. They were all moving southward, as if believing that their homes still existed or that they still had relatives alive to give them shelter. If the Netherlands and Belgium were any example to me, there was little left of Europe. What had not been bombed had been looted and what had not been looted had been burned to the ground.

[1923]

99 cents for 1923
1923: A Memoir tells of a time and place when life, full of raw emotion, was never so real.



http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0060CKF52


By Mrs. Vonnie J. Hughes (Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: 1923: A Memoir Lies and Testaments (Kindle Edition)
Instead of arid history books, read this. Harry's humble, poverty-stricken and hopeless beginnings produced a remarkable man (although he doesn't see himself that way).

Harry takes you through the first and second world wars as seen by one who lived through them, not as the history-apologists would have us believe.

The gulf between the haves and the have-nots at the beginning of the 20th century can only be thoroughly discussed by someone who was there, and Harry does this brilliantly.

I'd like to see a bit more editing done - seven or eight errors which threw me - and the ending is abrupt, but that is all to the good. That abrupt ending had me thinking, "Did he write a sequel? Where is it?"

Whoever you are, whatever genre you read in, read this book and learn

[1923]

 1923: A Memoir now just 99 cents

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0060CKF52]

It's a personal as well as a social history. Smith has the knack of bringing the times to life in a way that few writers can manage. It's the ability to tell a story, the knowledge of when to move on & not labour a point.--The Bookbag

1923 is a book that succeeds in two ways with ease, both as a personal memoir of a life lived in a volatile age and as a record of that age for all time. --The Current Reader

"There are many books written about WWII and The Great Depression, however written in a memoir creates a different read. If not for the true to life language of Harry's experiences, this story could be on school book shelves for students studying history." Mary Crocco

"1923" is uplifting and highly recommended.  --Midwest Book Review


1923: A Memoir is a protest against social injustice, corruption, war, famine, poverty, and societies blinded by greed. More importantly, it is the story of hope and the notion that anything can be overcome if desired.  --The Publishing Guru
Smith stays true to himself and his inner voice as he recounts the events of his early life.-Feeding My Book Addiction

[1923]

99 cents for 1923
1923: A Memoir tells of a time and place when life, full of raw emotion, was never so real.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0060CKF52

Birthday Greetings from 1941
I am quite sure that, this year, on my birthday there will be many good wishes, along with some cake. No doubt, there will be champagne because, after all, I am turning eight-nine.

“That is very old,” a relative recently said to me.

“It is an ocean of time,” I replied.

On good days, I marvel at my advanced age and on bad I lament that so many have passed before me. Being a winter baby, I have felt February’s austere light ebb, fade and grow cold upon my face for close to nine decades. Time has marked my body with many scars from this marathon, I started in 1923. I hope my finish line is far off in the thicket and I have still lots more time to ramble along the river bank of existence.

When I began this sprint, in my life’s journey, there was little to mark the day of my birth from any other day. There were no parties, balloons or fancy sweets, just a passing greeting from my mother, while my older sister tugged on my hair and counted my years of life. Afterwards, she would give me a pinch for good luck.

When I turned eighteen, a squeeze of good fortune from my sister would not have gone amiss considering Britain was at war. I was certainly going to need providence, on my side, because I was scheduled to begin my induction with the RAF, the following day.

My birthday in 1941 was a quiet affair. My friend Roy had already left to join the Cold Stream Guards while my other friend Dougie Butterworth was ill again and had taken to his bed with a quivering heart. I did not want to spend my last birthday, perhaps my last days on Earth with Eric. His fast talk about the money he was making in selective war service sickened me.

Instead, I decided to indulge myself with a visit to the public baths. They were located at the top of Boothtown Road. I arrived and paid an attendant 50p. It was a privilege to soak in a warm bath rather than a tin tub filled with tepid water in a kitchen. A female attendant led me along a narrow passageway until she found an unoccupied room. Inside the narrow, wood-lined space was a hanger for one’s clothes, and a deep, porcelain, bathtub. The attendant placed a plug into the bath. She turned the taps on until the bath was filled with warm inviting water. When finished, she closed the door behind her. I undressed and submerged myself in calm, cleansing hot water. I was empty of thoughts or cares until the water grew cold and it was time to dry myself, dress, and depart.

Afterwards, I spent some hours with my sister Mary who had come down to Halifax to bid me farewell. We did not talk much. We sipped our ale. We held each other’s hands on the table. We looked into each other’s faces, seeing if we could read our past upon them. She joked and bantered more than me because I was withdrawn and frightened about what tomorrow would bring for me. I was as scared as I was as a child when the nuns beat me because my future was as ominous as my past. I experienced the same form of loneliness when Albert our father left us. There was no one and nothing which could ease my sense of apartness from the civilian world. When it was time for my sister to leave, she got up and kissed me.

“Come back safe, Harry, just come back.”

The following morning, I awoke with a jittery feeling like it was a school morning. I dressed warmly and went to the kitchen. My mother was sitting alone, warming herself by the oven. Bill her lover had already gone to work and my half brother’s Matt and junior were at school. She made me a cup of tea and cut me a large slice of fresh bread. There was a generous lather of butter and jam on it.

“Go on, tuck in. Well, lad, this is it. Keep your head down, Harry. Don’t do anything daft because life is short, my boy, life is short.”

I hugged her with mixed emotions. I mumbled farewell and made my way to the train station.

The platform was deserted while I waited for my train to take me to Padgate for induction. It was cold, damp, and grey; sweet smoke from the McIntosh candy plant fell like drizzle across the station. I reached into my overcoat and found a near-empty packet of cigarettes.

I placed one in my mouth and furiously struck a match, quickly inhaling the harsh tobacco. In the distance, I heard the whistle of the train. I smelled the coal burning off its engine. I breathed in the coal that had been dug from the pits of Barnsley, Elsecar, and Barley Hole. I tasted it in my mouth, around my teeth, and on my tongue. It was the soot of my father, my grandfather, and all my ancestors who laboured beneath the ground.

As the train drew its way into the belly of the station, another passenger approached the platform. He was a man in his fifties, long past the time for war, and he was whistling the tune, ‘Run rabbit, run rabbit, run, run, run…”

[1923]

99 cents for 1923
1923: A Memoir tells of a time and place when life, full of raw emotion, was never so real.



http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0060CKF52


It's a personal as well as a social history. Smith has the knack of bringing the times to life in a way that few writers can manage. It's the ability to tell a story, the knowledge of when to move on & not labour a point.--The Bookbag

1923 is a book that succeeds in two ways with ease, both as a personal memoir of a life lived in a volatile age and as a record of that age for all time. --The Current Reader


"1923" is uplifting and highly recommended.  --Midwest Book Review


1923: A Memoir is a protest against social injustice, corruption, war, famine, poverty, and societies blinded by greed. More importantly, it is the story of hope and the notion that anything can be overcome if desired.  --The Publishing Guru
Smith stays true to himself and his inner voice as he recounts the events of his early life.-Feeding My Book Addiction
Product Description
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]

1923: A Memoir Lies and Testaments 99 cents

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0060CKF52


 
Average Customer Review
4.8 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 5 stars outt of 5 stars Heartbreaking & Uplifting,
By Melanie King - See all my reviews
This review is from: 1923: A Memoir Lies and Testaments (Kindle Edition)
Having never read a memoir, I wasn't sure what to expect. But from the moment I got involved with [...] and selected my authors, I knew I would be a fan of the genre - at least this particular author's account of his early years.

Just from the brief blurbs on the [...] author page, there was a parallel resonance between Harry's life and my father's, although comparing the two, my father's life wasn't nearly so tragic and poverty-stricken. In their later years, they both fought in Europe during WWII.

It must have been extremely painful for Harry to be able to put his childhood on paper for all to see yet cathartic at the same time.

It's hard to imagine the type of childhood Harry experienced in 1920s and 1930s England. In that period, people did what that had to in order to survive, including digging through trash and stealing from others to obtain something to eat. His account of his father's years of working in the mines until he could no longer work below ground to being pensioned off and shamed out of the family home because of the actions of his mother, who only did what she had to in order to ensure their survival (such as it was).

Even Harry's mates and later his RAF comrades had no idea what he had been through as a child, ***spoiler here*** although I suspected it would tumble out when he pulled his rifle on a fellow serviceman. ***end spoiler***. Harry had invented a happy reasonaby normal family life for himself.

Harry is quick to credit his older sister, Mary, for his survival. When she finally leaves home, he's devastated. They remain close but it's not the same. When he talks about corresponding with Mary after he's enlisted with the RAF, you can feel the hurt in his words as he knows they've drifted apart.

Harry's keen wit and way with words make for an spell-binding rollercoaster ride of emotions from the lowest of low to the highest of high. He doesn't pull any punches and is brutally honest when reliving his experiences.

There are two more chapters forthcoming in this series. 1947: A Place For The Heart To Kip and the final book, tentatively entitled 1953: Empress of Australia.

After reading his first, I'll definitely be purchasing the next two.

[1923]

1923: A Memoir only 99 cents http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0060CKF52

It's a personal as well as a social history. Smith has the knack of bringing the times to life in a way that few writers can manage. It's the ability to tell a story, the knowledge of when to move on & not labour a point.--The Bookbag

1923 is a book that succeeds in two ways with ease, both as a personal memoir of a life lived in a volatile age and as a record of that age for all time. --The Current Reader


"1923" is uplifting and highly recommended.  --Midwest Book Review


1923: A Memoir is a protest against social injustice, corruption, war, famine, poverty, and societies blinded by greed. More importantly, it is the story of hope and the notion that anything can be overcome if desired.  --The Publishing Guru

Smith stays true to himself and his inner voice as he recounts the events of his early life.-Feeding My Book Addiction

[1923]

1923: A Memoir: Lies and Testaments



http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0060CKF52

"This makes uncomfortable but compelling reading. The author grew up in grinding poverty and appalling conditions but with a determination to better himself. I actually found this an inspiring read in the end. Although I was shocked and horrified to read what this young boy and his siblings had to put up with, I admired his determination to better himself by finding escape in reading. His childhood was dreadful and his youth in the RAF tedious. Although bitterness shows through in his writing at times; it is perfectly natural given the circumstances but this is not a wallow in self pity. I found the ending very optimistic and hope to read the next installment of his memoirs soon!"

[1923]

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0060CKF52

"Smith's coming of age memoir takes readers on a journey of poverty and heartbreak that is the author's childhood and young adulthood growing up between the first and second world wars. Smith stays true to himself and his inner voice as he recounts the events of his early life. The narrative flow develops and ages, if you will, as he does throughout the book. It's incredibly powerful to see a precocious child harden under his circumstances and age into an adult set on escaping the ever looming workhouse and empty stomach that seemed to define his childhood." Feeding My Book Addiction

[1923]

1923: A Memoir 99 cents this weekend



http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0060CKF52

The writing is simple and to the point, making the events the most important aspect. Sometimes turning brutally stark, the writing tears away until the truth of those years shines through. There are not many books out there that show the life of a pilot during those years, and I was surprised at how moving many of the sections were. There was no real dull moment in the book’s entirety, which is something to compliment the author about.
Writing a memoir is not an easy matter, there is always the danger of maudlin scenes or descriptive minutia that might mean a lot for the author but not for the reader, so this is one of those books that should be read, not only for the incredible life resting in its pages, but for the skill with which it was handled. I can easily recommend it to lovers of memoirs and of history.