David is an author of fantasy novels and a writer and producer of rock music. The site provides information of his creative works and has a regular blog of news of his latest work and insights into his life and past.
Scarborough has a firm place in my heart as the town has made me welcome at various stages of my life. As the largest of the Yorkshire resorts it was … Continue reading ‘Cup of Tea Tales’ – Scarborough- More than Just the Beach and the Front. History, Culture and Punch and Judy!
I am never sure what I am going to write about until I have actually started and often the tale ends up very different from the one that I intended. … Continue reading ‘Cup of Tea Tales’ – Roundhay Park, Leeds – Part of My History and a Glorious Gem of a Place!
To say that I have spent the whole of my adult life in education, I was far from a model student at Roundhay School. I entered the school in 1966, … Continue reading ‘Cup of Tea Tales’ – O’ Levels and my total lack of preparedness – Latin, French, Chemistry and other disasters – Exams and the Dreaded Results!
I seem to remember clearly that the year before I left Leeds to go to Borough Road College in Isleworth, London, the summer was long, hot and dry. I am … Continue reading ‘Cup of Tea Tales’ –Holiday Jobs at WASS Hunslet Road, Budget Rent a Car, Smokey and Spaghetti – the Gift that Keeps Giving!
It must have been in the late 1950s when I was first taken to what we called Bardsey Woods. My younger brother wasn’t born when we first went and it … Continue reading ‘Cup of Tea Tales’ – Hetchell Woods (Bardsey) and Crags – A Special Piece of God’s Own Country!
I don’t know if my friends and I were particularly unusual or not, and I suspect you will let me know, but being a teenager for me was an opportunity … Continue reading ‘Cup of Tea Tales’ – Ink Drinking, Ouija Boards, Knock Out Tricks and Gravity Defying. – What Strange Creatures We Were and What Peculiar Things Teenagers Got Up To in the 1960s and 70s!
I don’t think that schoolchildren in the 1950s and 60s went on the number of school visits that they do nowadays and when we did go they were quite memorable … Continue reading ‘Cup of Tea Tales’ – Harehills CP School Trips, York, Fountains Abbey and, Oh Yes It Was the Pantomime, OH NO It Wasn’t!
Looking back the idea of a Tuckshop seems almost Dickensian, but Roundhay School really was clinging on to its traditions and harking back to days of Public Schools. At Harehills … Continue reading ‘Cup of Tea Tales’ – Tuckshop Trouble, Tastes and Teasers of the Tastebuds and the Onset of Courting.
I awoke this morning at about 5am and I began to think about what I should write for my upcoming Cup of Tea Tale and, whilst doing so, I began … Continue reading ‘Cup of Tea Tales’ – Memories – The Perils and Pitfalls of Swimming Lessons at Harehills County Primary.
Cars were relatively few at the end of the 50s and early sixties, but I can still remember several incidents that have stuck with me all these years. Some of … Continue reading ‘Cup of Tea Tales’ – Oakwood Adventures, The Three-Wheeled Morris Minor, The Squirrel on the Bus, The Mini with No Brakes and The Girl in the Shorts.
When I was little in the late 1950s and 60s eating out was a very rare treat. The usual locations were fish and chips shops when on holiday at Bridlington, … Continue reading ‘Cup of Tea Tales’ – Eating Out – Bryan’s, Nash’s, Harry Ramsden’s, The Acorn, the Flying Pizza and Indian Restaurants.
As a child in the late 1950s shopping was a task that my mother did on an almost daily basis. At this time we, and probably most families, didn’t have … Continue reading ‘Cup of Tea Tales’ – Shopping – Grocers, Greengrocers, Bakeries, Butchers and Other Speciality Shops. Shopping in Leeds, the Leeds Market and the Advent of the Supermarket and Shopping Centre.
