Derby Boy

Anton Rippon is a Derby boy through and through. He was born just before Christmas 1944, his entrance into the world hastened after his mother fell over a milk churn in the blackout. At the time of his birth, just down the road a Derby Corporation bus driver was recapturing an escaped German prisoner of war. Despite his dramatic entrance into Derby life, Anton survived to become one of the city's best-known writers and personalities with a string of books to his name and a popular weekly column in the Derby Evening Telegraph. A Derby Boy is a collection of Anton's reminiscences of childhood, teenage years and his introduction to the bustling world of work. Nostalgia abounds with tales of family, schooldays, trips to theatres and cinemas, shops and streets, pubs and clubs, sporting life and national events. These memories are recalled with humour and are sure to strike a chord with a great many Derbeians. Tales of mad butchers to dodgy coalmen, eccentric schoolteachers and odd publicans, illegal gambling and irate undertakers combine with his family's often tragic story to open up a new prospective on life in Derby over four generations.