It's Wake-Up Time

Bristol in the 60s and 70s was a different world. There wereno phones, certainly no mobiles, and television was something you watched at awell-off neighbour's.

This is the world that Angela Skelley remembers growingup in and recounts in her nostalgia-steeped memoir It's Wake-Up Time.

Following Angela's childhood untilshe emigrated to Canada, in present-tense, clearly laid out chapters of herlife, the memoir will appeal both to readers who remember the post-war years andthose who enjoy seeing a fragment of history from someone else's eyes. Life could be hard, Angela and her three other siblingssquashed in a tiny prefab which froze on the inside every winter.

But sherecalls that, in many ways, childhood for her still shares similarities withnow: music, (front row seats at the Colston Hall to see the Beatles, for lessthan a pound), dancing (more bopping than rave, but still...), weekly visits tothe cinema (lovely long sessions on a Saturday morning), boys (the good, thebad and the ugly), and family (to inspire, love, get frustrated with, lean onand push away from, take for granted and, eventually, to miss). From the first forays of the grown-up world of paid work toleaving for a new home, Angela shares her experiences in an honest, chattyaccount that will alternatively have you glued to the page or chuckling withdelight.