Alan Neatby-Smith
alan.neatby-smith@tesco.net | About My Writing In reading a friend’s boyhood memoirs and saying to myself “I could do that!”, I suppose I opted for what is almost certainly the easiest genre for beginners. As a retired accountant, I had done my fair share of pen pushing and it is hardly surprising that my first effort was hand-written. However, "A Long Eaton Boyhood" was accepted by return of post and has since been re-printed. "Escape to South Africa" has also just seen the light of day and, in between times, I was finally successful in my efforts to have "Some Radical Thoughts for the Confused Christian" published. There are currently two small books of HUMOROUS SATIRE awaiting illustration before being presented to my Publisher and I am nearly half-way through my 59 years as "A Furriner in Cornwall".
As a generally unknown published author in my 91st year, my chief concern is to work towards more co-operation among similarly unknown writers, with a view to publication outside mercenary main-line publishers. | Authors' Register: | About My Background Born mid-WW1 into a family with very strong dental traditions, I was blessed with a butterfly-mind and cursed with a non-retention memory. That my father was an excellent dental surgeon, but a rotten businessman did not help and, with three siblings and the doldrums of the 1960s, there were no funds for tertiary education.
Hence, after matriculation, I was invited by my father to think about earning a living and it so happened that one of his patients – a young chartered accountant – was looking for his first articled clerk. Being naïve, I accepted my father’s suggestion and signed on the dotted line. However, although things started reasonably well, two near fatal illnesses half way through my Articles effectively put paid to my studies and I failed to qualify.
WW2 and call-up having ensued, I was expecting to be rejected as a human wreck but, to my amazement, was passed A1 and opted for the RAF. Although I would probably have been accepted for Accountant Officer, I felt I needed a change, and being of a mechanical bent, opted for Flight Mechanic. After six months training, Providence took me out of the war area to 66 Air School at Cape Town, South Africa, this having provided the material for my third book.
In the meantime, I earned a post-war living as an accountant, working from home and ministering to the tax affairs of locals who felt they could not afford town-accountants’ fees. Having felt in my 40s that I should have followed in father’s footsteps, I felt in my 80s that I should write, albeit without the slightest intention of achieving best-seller-dom. At 90, I am still trying to shake off (not too hard) my last two accountancy clients in order to give more time to the written word.
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A Long Eaton Boyhood | | | Genre: Non-fiction - Biography
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 | | I MIGHT as well come clean: there must be hundreds of chaps better qualified than I, by association let alone literary attainment, to chronicle such an epoch-making event as the early odyssey of a Long Eaton schoolboy.
For in a sense, although born in L.E. (as distinct from L.A.!), I was removed while still in nappies to Risley in 1917, remaining there until my return to the local metropolis in 1931. This translation from the impressive Queen Anne mini-mansion known as the Latin House, to my new home in the cul-de-sac of Shakespeare Street must have been a pivotal event in my boyhood.
Although the rateable value of No.55 S.S., L.E. may have been reduced by the much later erection of the urinal at the corner of College Street, the undoubted utility showed up the deficiencies of the Latin House, whose sanitary arrangements had not very materially altered since Queen Anne, 1706!
So I would ask any reader who might have got as far as this to bear with me for a brief history of the 14-year pre-L.E. life. After all, what is a three-mile gap these days, although then it was a cycle ride or Shank’s pony!
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| Radical Thoughts for the Confused Christian | | | Genre: Non-fiction - Other
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 | | As a Christian, I dislike any form of hypocrisy, my main concern being for a Spiritual reality in the Christian Faith.‘Radical Thoughts’ aims to cause both Christians and non-Christians to consider their positions. However,
it is important to bear in mind that the book is entitled ‘Radical Thoughts’ and therefore do not expect to agree with some or many of the chapters. At the same time, I hope you will find a number of them (and some of my comments) both penetrating and searching. I also hope this is a book that you will both love and perhaps respond to.
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| Escape to South Africa | | | Genre: Non-fiction - Biography
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 | | This is an account of the three most enjoyable years that I spent as a flight mechanic with the Royal Air Force in South Africa. Notable among my exploits were a party that involved me riding a wild horse fresh from the S.W.African desert (that's the horse, not me!) and my crafting Spitfires out of "tikki" coins.
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