NOT HEAVY ENOUGH TO WIN A PRIZE?
By Keith Diggle
… This book really is a prize winner, an enjoyable, evocative record of a versatile and adventurous character.
Dennis Ford, Old Oundelian Magazine
Dennis Ford’s review continues:
In 1951 Keith Diggle, aged 13, started at Laxton School. He lived on Polebrook Aerodrome in one of the huts of the Officers’ Quarters and had free range of what had been the home of the 351st Bombardment Group of the USAAF and, incidentally, Clark Gable (whose hut name plate he still has). Along with many other contemporaries he formed a lasting affection for ‘Quack' Leech, Laxton’s Master-in-Charge.
His time in Oundle School Combined Cadet Force had its moments; while on a summer camp in Aberdeen he took up a challenge to appear sparsely clad in a coffin of ice at a fairground. Later he was to crash the School glider spectacularly.
During one summer holiday he went to work in a holiday camp and came back to school fired with enthusiasm for putting on shows. His parents having moved away, he lived in digs in Rock Road and from there he masterminded two variety concerts that were presented in the Drill Hall.
He became a teacher of mathematics (at Corby Grammar School) and here his ‘enthusiasm for putting on shows’ led him to start a unique jazz club, presenting concerts by internationally famous musicians. He then helped start the Midland (now English) Sinfonia and soon was offered the post of Director of Merseyside Arts Association. At this time he was becoming well-known as an expert in Arts Marketing and published his first three books on the subject. A parallel career in lecturing soon took him to Canada, Hungary, Spain, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand as well as the UK. In the mid-seventies he helped start a publishing company which published many magazines and books on the arts.
His book of memoirs (and poems) traces the events of these years and highlights the exciting Four Great Sea Adventures of his life (as an inexpert sailor) and the time he took his family to live in Tuscany.
Dennis Ford concludes:
This is an entertaining and impressive record of a remarkably varied and unusual career, a story told with modesty, self-deprecating humour and deep affection for his family, and his countless friends and colleagues.
Here's how you get hold of a copy (and benefit CANCER RESEARCH UK at the same time).
- Email your full UK postal address (including postcode) to the author at email@keithdiggle.com
- Wait to receive his postal address and a Gift Aid declaration form
- Send him a cheque for £10.00 made payable to CANCER RESEARCH UK
- Wait to receive a signed copy of the book entirely at the author's expense
- The author will send your cheque and Gift Aid declaration to Cancer Research UK on your behalf.
Hardback with full colour jacket. 323pp inc. 32 pp section on blue stock (A Resort Runs Through It) plus 16 pages of photographs. Pub. Greenfield House 1997.
