Barn door to balance sheet

The popular image of the fifties to seventies is one of gentler times, Buddy Holly, Carnaby Street, flower power and big hair, but the reality for the working man was quite different.

The all pervading legacies of the second world war were rationing, a broken economy, socialism, the end of class system , the gradual realisation we no longer had an Empire and there were no more jobs for life.

Out of the gloom there slowly emerged a business revolution with hitherto unimaginable rewards for those who understood that jobs for the boys had given way to opportunities for a new breed of hustlers.

Britain had quietly become a meritocracy! It no longer cared who your parents were, which school you went to or if you had a 'posh' accent- for those who were prepared to sell their soul and make money for the company there were rich rewards for the taking. Failure was never an option.

This is the story of how one man amongst many were unwittingly sowing the seeds for Thatcher's Britain by replacing the blast furnace with a balance sheet and the pipe and slippers for permanent stress and a very sharp pencil.

We invented management consultancy and corporate jargon because we believed in it, we then set about changing the way Britain worked.

You'll read about how I was catapulted into once great companies and forced them to adapt or die. You'll read about the devastating effect this revolution had on the lives of those who resisted change. You'll read about the time I hit rock bottom and how I got my life back on track and you'll read about some famous people before they were famous.

Barn Door to Balance Sheet is a gritty, touching, factual commentary about those times as seen through the eyes of someone who was lucky enough to be there...

 

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Derbyshire Born

From humble beginnings
"The demarcation between bottom-enders and top enders was very marked and well understood in the late 1940's. The war had made little difference. This was not a proper village. Rather it was a community thrown together, first by the coal mines, later the railways."

Via steam trains
"If the little engines were lovable, the giant eight and nine freights were positively awesome. Their magnificence was not dented by the quietness and stillness of being at rest in the great engine sheds. Nor was their dignity impugned by the ant-like men in boiler suits with strange sounding names who crawled over and inside them."

Via business
How does an ordinary John Smith born to a small tenant farmer of poor coal-riddled soil in unfashionable Derbyshire become a qualified accountant and work as a management consultant for the mighty Price Waterhouse and subsequently at the highest level in other trendsetting companies of the times?

To writing
The world may have moved on, but nothing that's really important has changed. I write now because I enjoy it, and have the time. Derbyshire Born is not only the story of my life, it's also an opportunity to reflect on the sometimes uncomfortable social transition between the old world and the unlimited opportunities of the new.

Who should read Derbyshire Born?
Anyone with an interest in 20th century social history - Anyone with an interest in how Derbyshire & Nottinghamshire life changed forever in the post WW2 era - Anyone with an interest in the sea change that took place at the cutting edge of business practice in the sixties and seventies - Anyone looking for a good book to read - and of course my family so they know how it really was.
Please contact the author for a talk and reading from his work. These are conducted on a no-fee, reimbursed expenses basis

 

www.derbyshireborn.co.uk