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.
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!
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!
Now I am sure that many looking at this will have shared similar experiences, whether male or female, as sport seemed to hold a special place in a good education … Continue reading ‘Cup of Tea Tales’ – Rugby – The only thing that truly mattered in a Boys’ School. The Good and Bad of Adolescent Boys!
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!
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.
My tale this week is a one-off. It was a night that I didn’t expect a great deal from, but was one I will never forget. Whilst in the sixth … Continue reading ‘Cup of Tea Tales’ – Batley Variety Club, Freddie Starr. Oh, what a Night!
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.
I guess that one of life’s greatest pleasures was the ability to get around your world without having to be reliant on your parents. This hasn’t changed as we got … Continue reading ‘Cup of Tea Tales’- Scooters, Tricycles, Bikes and Bogeys, Getting Mobile and Staying There.
For most young people it will strike them as hard to imagine, but in the 1960s and 70s music was a major part of a teenager’s life, in a way … Continue reading ‘Cup of Tea Tales’ – Piano Smashing, 78s, Singles, Vinyl LPs, Reel to Reel and the Cassette Tape – The Music Era.
