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I’ll start off with what this book is not. It is
not some slick, ghost-written, celebrity memoir, much of which you suspect is
embellished and re-imagined to make the celebrity look good. What you get with Starting
to Frame is an account of the life of an ordinary bloke (I mean that in a
good way) – but that is what makes it special.
Roger Gordon (“Soft Ayperth”
to give him his ‘Sheffield Forum’ moniker) tells the story of his upbringing in
the late 40s, 50s, and 60s, in a working-class/aspiring middle-class family. It
contains elements that many Sheffielders will recognise, and I think anyone who
lived through those years will enjoy the trip down memory lane. For younger
readers the interest will be sociological: a description of the world their parents
or grandparents grew up in during the post-war years. (It is a factual account
that complements the Brian Sellars novels reviewed in my Sheffield novels blog
post.)
Every memoir is, to an
extent, a work of fiction, and I even debated with myself whether I should put
this review in with Sheffield novels – the very fact it contains dialogue gives
it a fictional element, but there is no doubting that this adds to the truth
and honest telling of those events. As I have written elsewhere, fiction is often
is a closer representation of the truth than a ‘factual’ account. Like a novel,
this is a well-rounded story, not just a stringing together of life events. Roger
Gordon tells the tale of a tough, but in many ways not uncommon, childhood. The
story of a dysfunctional family – but are fully-functional families the exception
anyway? He openly describes bouts of mental illness which he continued to live
with throughout his adult life. These led to short periods of hospitalisation,
but the illness didn’t stop him pursuing a very successful academic career and
fulfilling life. As he says: “I have learned to face these setbacks as one
would any recurrent medical condition – a strep throat, sinus infection or a
sore bowel. Something that is hard-wired into my genome, as the lives of my
parents attest to. Definitely not a personality flaw.” This openness about
mental illness is a very positive thing and can only contribute to the drive to
change attitudes such as the Mind/ Rethink Mental Illness “Time to Change”
campaign seeks to do.
This book is indie-published,
something which makes it an even greater achievement in my view. It is
therefore not as slick a piece of work as if it had been through the commercial
route. It is, however, well written (you’d expect a retired university
professor to be able to string a couple of sentences together). It could be
said the little flaws just lend to its authenticity. The book is professionally
produced and typeset, and it probably takes a pedant like me to even think: “it
would have been a bit better if…”
Another interesting
aspect is that Roger moved to Canada in his late twenties to only return
occasionally thereafter. That detachment enables him to write about his Sheffield
years in a special way – looking, not only back in time, but also from a
different world. He uses dialect in the dialogue, but also explains things for
a North American audience, things that it wouldn’t have struck me to explain. He
remembers things as they were, but slips in words like “recess” for “school
playtime/break” and uses “jock” in the context of a sporty kid at school. It
just adds to the charm. The title, Starting to Frame, uses the verb ‘frame’
in a way I have not heard recently – not since I was told “Come on! Frame, lad!”
– as in buck your ideas up.
I saw a copy of this
book at Sheffield Scene on Surrey Street the other day, so you can buy a copy
of it locally. It is also available through Amazon. It would be interesting to
see what other people think of it.
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