ONE man's vivid and fascinating account of life in north Bromsgrove between the 1870s and the Great War is highlighted in a book published this week.

A Bromsgrove Carpenter's Tale is the written recollections of Arthur James, who was born in Norton, Bromsgrove, in 1878.

He began to record his memories at the age of 71, but stopped abruptly a year later.

He had, however, by that time written enough to give a feel and a taste for everyday life in his community up to 1914.

The book is introduced and edited by Margaret Cooper, from Bromsgrove, and published by Halfshire Books.

Some years ago she co-wrote, with Bill Kings, Glory Gone, a history of nailmaking in Bromsgrove.

Margaret said Arthur wrote about the characters he knew - 'Bony' Dipple, 'Sopit' Pearse, 'Sweat' Nokes and 'Blind Jack, to name but a few.

It was a community that included extremely poor families who, at the worst of times, queued at the soup kitchen for halfpenny dinners.

It was a community where cockerels, hens and even peacock strutted freely outside the cottagers' homes in the main Birmingham Road and it was also a community that loved its music.

Arthur writes about his own very musical family, the free concerts his father and older sister gave and the local choirs they trained.

Arthur was an apprentice carpenter with builders William Weaver where they were treated like "domestic donkeys".

When he was 20 he worked for another Birmingham Road builder, Joseph Tilt, who left specific instructions about the making of his own coffin and taught Arthur how to "put a man in".

The book is on sale, priced £9.95, or post free from Halfshire Books, 130 New Road, Bromsgrove, B60 2LE.