Author HARRY LESLIE SMITH
Publisher ICONBOOKS.NET
ISBN 978-184831726-0
Here is an erudite and informed ninety year old who was raised in times of poverty in England. He fought in the Second World War and lived through the austerity of the early post war years, saw the advent of the welfare health system in the UK and has watched as the scene has changed through the sixties and into the Thatcher/Reagan years. His obviously well considered views lead him to believe that things are regressing back to the years of the greed of the few made off the backs of the working masses and in ways, his assessment has significant elements of truth in it. The book is well written, he moves effortlessly between reminiscences of his earlier years to the state of Britain as it stands today, or at least, as he sees it. He is clearly very much left of middle in his politics, championing the poorer of the community and endeavoring to point out significant problems in the way that the present Westminster coalition government is trying to turn things around with their program of austerity he believes plays into the hands of the massive corporations and their directors and shareholders.
He clearly jettisoned any Christian faith he may have once touched and there is a tremendous vacuum created by the absence of any real effort to establish the fact that there are serious moral reasons why things are as they are. There is certain quality that moves the reader to sympathy with what he writes but that also annoys at the same time. It is all rather simplistic, the unwillingness to truly own that man is a moral being means that we are left with the feeling, “yes, you are right in much of what you are saying, but, without significant changes of heart in everyone nothing is going to change.” So, obviously this is not a book written from a Christian perspective but it is written by a man who cares, first, for his country, and secondly, the wider state of the world. He lived through difficult times and maybe it would do the politicians no harm to read what he has written as a ‘wise old owl’ having something to say. It is not the answer but it is a help to those willing to gain perspective on what has happened and is taking place in our world.
