FOLLOWING on from the success of his previous book, which documented his all consuming passion for motorbikes, popular local author Wilf Couldwell has recently published a new work of non-fiction which charts his formative years as a young lad growing up in rural Yorkshire.

'Living at the Back of Beyond' takes the reader on an evocative trip through the mists of time and down memory lane to a vastly different era to the one of today.

Wilf fondly recalls a colourful childhood of horse drawn carts, grouse beating, gamekeepers, blacksmiths milking cows by hand, gutting rabbits, killing pigs, American GI's, German bombers and the routine appearance of tramps, gypsies and scrap men.

At its heart, Wilf's new book is a collection of short stories that revolve around the everyday happenings of life on a farm in the Yorkshire Pennines.

Written in a simple and engaging fashion and full of larger than life characters, Wilf's tale will appeal to anyone who likes a good yarn and a taste of how things once were.

Wilf, who moved to the local area with his wife and young son in the 1970s, was born on Garlic House farm in the Yorkshire Pennines just before the Second World War.

After leaving school at 15, he helped on the family farm until he was 21-years-old.

Then, with the help of his brother Lewis, he bought a motorcycle business in the small town of Seepcar near Sheffield.

Later he became a garage proprietor in the steel town of Stocksbridge, before moving to Abergavenny where he ran a successful engineering business associated with the farming industry.

Wilf explained to the Chronicle in his distinctive Yorkshire brogue, "In July 1936 I made my noisy but eagerly expected appearance into the household of the Couldwell family.

"It hadn't taken me long to discover that the best way to attract attention was to yell long and loud, there wasn't anything untoward wrong with me, I was just an attention seeker, or so my mother declared to anyone who had heard my loud demands.

"That was the beginning of my tale and if you want to find out about what happened next, you'll just have to read the book," laughed Wilf.

When asked about the myriad of differences between live in the past and life in the present, Wilf revealed, "The things we had to manage without were quite numerous back then, especially in my early days.

"We didn't have what are now considered by almost everyone to be essential everyday things such as electricity, gas, mains water, a bathroom, a water closet, or even a telephone at Garlic House Farm.

"Water came from a spring which we shared with the cows, and our only toilet was a two-seater affair known as an earth closet.

"We had to rely on paraffin lamps for light, and the lack of a telephone didn't concern us that much for we never had such a luxury.

"As far as I can recall I had never seen a proper bath until we had one installed when I was a teenager.

"Yet there's an old saying that I feel is applicable when you're looking back at the past from the vantage point of the future and it goes like this - 'You never miss the things you've never had'."

In summary the overall impression you're left with upon reading Wilf's latest book is best encapsulated by L.P. Hartley's famous lines, "The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there."

'Living at the Back of Beyond' by Wilfred Couldwell is now available to buy at the Abergavenny Bookshop.