It's Wake-Up Time

Bristol in the 60s and 70s was a different world. There were no phones, certainly no mobiles, and television was something you watched at a well-off neighbour’s. This is the world that Angela Skelley remembers growing up in and recounts in her nostalgia-steeped memoir It’s Wake-Up Time. Following Angela’s childhood until she emigrated to Canada, in present-tense, clearly laid out chapters of her life, the memoir will appeal both to readers who remember the post-war years and those who enjoy seeing a fragment of history from someone else’s eyes.

Life could be hard, Angela and her three other siblings squashed in a tiny prefab which froze on the inside every winter. But she recalls that, in many ways, childhood for her still shares similarities with now: music, (front row seats at the Colston Hall to see the Beatles, for less than a pound), dancing (more bopping than rave, but still...), weekly visits to the cinema (lovely long sessions on a Saturday morning), boys (the good, the bad and the ugly), and family (to inspire, love, get frustrated with, lean on and push away from, take for granted and, eventually, to miss).

From the first forays of the grown-up world of paid work to leaving for a new home, Angela shares her experiences in an honest, chatty account that will alternatively have you glued to the page or chuckling with delight.