Double Gloucester - Softcover

John Hedley

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1786933233 ISBN 13: 9781786933232

Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers, 2017

Synopsis

Nowhere is England more like herself than in the county of the Severn and the Thames; Arthur Mee 
Double Gloucester celebrates this originality, and here in microcosm is the rich history of Gloucestershire. From that base, it reaches out to celebrate the poetry and music associated with the countyâfrom Ivor Gurney to Gustav Holst. In all of this there is, if only by default, an essentially moral message, because Gloucestershireâs motto is âprorsum semperâ, meaning âever uprightâ. John Hedley has crafted a detailed and thought-provoking history of the county in this deftly-written play, offering snapshots of Gloucesterâs history through the people who lived there, and how they lived.

About this title

About the Author:

John Hedley (not his real name) was brought up in Gloucestershire and spent 20 years of his life in Charlton Kings. Educated at Cheltenham, where he was a day boy, and at Wadham College, Oxford; he proved to be a disreputable disappointment in both of these distinguished institutions. Hedley went on to teach in the state sector. As a schoolmaster, he directed a number of plays, which included a full production of Henry IV part 1. Also, in a staff-room context, he was the lead singer in a Gregorian plainchant choir, and the baritone soloist in Gabriel Fauréâs Requiem. Subsequently, John Hedley returned to evening classes in Bradford to strengthen the O and A Level base of his inadequate qualifications, then got a masterâs degree at Leeds University, scraping a mark of 60%. Going on to pass the first two parts of a London University BSc in Economics with an aggregate mark of 59.5%, he refused to take the third part because the syllabus had been radically altered in relation to his initial expectations, depriving him of examination papers he could have coped with effectively. At the end of his career, Hedley was a teacher of A Level Economics, and Head of History at a northern Catholic school. He managed just to lead his department creditably through three Ofsted inspections. This was achieved primarily by producing the requisite word-processed documentation and by delegating the teaching of the most important classes to competent colleagues. In May 2005, during his last term there, John Hedley wrote and directed a VE Day 60th anniversary memorial concert. This involved a PowerPoint presentation, and contributions by choirs and by dancers. It was this event, along with his portfolio of experience in extra-curricular music and drama, that has provided the template for Double Gloucester. Upon retiring, he became an appealer for the charity 'Aid to the Church in Need' in the North West, and also gave talks on historical topics across Lancashire and Cumbria to those who shared his interests. Although an exile from the County of Gloucester, he has never lost his enthusiasm for its landscape and its peopleâpast as well as present. Five years ago, Hedley felt impelled to turn his attention from his present Lancastrian home territoryâand through exploratory reading and rudimentary researchâto revisit Gloucestershire, where he spent most of his first quarter of a century. This volume is the result of all that.

About this edition

• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1786933233
• ISBN 13: 9781786933232
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 190