Pam Ayres - The Necessary Aptitude - A Memoir

Product Description

NEXT, I APPLIED TO WORK IN THE ACCOUNTS DEPARTMENT, a sealed room where women operated clattering machines like enormous typewriters. After I had catastrophically & erroneously applied all the wrong information to several trolley loads of documents & lumbered the staff with weeks of corrective work, I was shown the door by a tight-lipped manageress. I knew what was coming. Over the relentless, furious din of machinery, I lip-read the familiar words: " Lacks the necessary aptitude." Pam Ayres early childhood in Stanford in the Vale was idyllic in many ways, & typical of that experienced by a great swathe of children born in rural areas in the immediate post-war years. Though her parents, generation was harrowed by war, better times were coming. Everything the family needed was within walking distance in the village, & life with four older brothers & a sister in their crowded council house was exceedingly lively. In her late teens, Pam grew dissatisfied with her life as a Civil Service clerk with only the local, hope for scintillating excitement. Having seen three of her brothers called up for National Service & sent off to exciting destinations, Pam felt desperate for travel & adventure. She joined the WRAF & soon found herself in the Far East. There she began to write in earnest, & develop the unique talent that would make her one of Britains favourite comics... Written with Pams much-loved combination of humour & poignancy, The Necessary Aptitude is a beautifully written memoir of her early years.