TALES of a Dorchester childhood in a bygone age feature in a book by a local first-time author.

David Forrester’s book, Fordington Remembered: Growing up in and around Dorchester, promises to provoke plenty of local interest when it is launched on December 11.

The work looks at the county town in the post-war era of food rationing with local businesses and schoolboy pranks also featuring heavily.

Author David moved to Dorset when he was just three months old and grew up in Fordington.

His mother ran an ‘open all hours’ style shop at 35 Fordington High Street for 35 years and much of the book is his recollections of what life was like in the 1940s and 1950s in a then disadvantaged part of Dorchester, known as ‘the wrong end of town’.

David said: “When us lads (old men now) meet, as we do often, we discuss the old times and the fun we had; our wives get a little fed up seeing us still laughing about the same old things year after year.

“Times were hard then, we had little and there was little to be had. But we were happy with our lot and much more capable of entertaining ourselves than modern children, it seems.

“But I must stress that many of the things mentioned in this book are not recommended for children today in our safety conscious world.”

The book has been published by Roving Press, which has a track record for publishing local history books such as Brian Bates’s Dorchester Remembers the Great War.

It includes a foreword by local historian Terry Hearing, who says: “I enjoyed Dave’s memoirs immensely and heartily recommend the book as a valuable addition to our social history and as a jolly good read.”

The book also included both colour and old black-and-white photographs, some of which were obtained from the Dorset County Museum collection and Mill Street Housing Society Archives.

It will be on sale at local book stores as well as direct from the publisher at rovingpress.co.uk David has asked that all author royalties are split between the Rotary Foundation and Dorset ME Support Group.

The book launch is being held on Wednesday, December 11 at St George’s Church Hall in High Street Fordington from 6pm to 8pm. All are welcome to attend and David will be personally signing copies on the night.