WElcome
Dave Joy - Author
Book Launch, 2014. (I have less hair nowadays!)
Welcome to my website. Until such time as I write a best-selling novel, I am best described as an author of non-fiction!
My first book, My Family and Other Scousers - A Liverpool Boy's Summer of Adventure in '69 (The History Press, 2014), is a memoir. Set in the sixties, it tells the story of my childhood days spent at Wellington Dairy, the family's horse-drawn milk business in Garston, Liverpool.
Wellington Dairy was something of a time capsule - though change galloped past, the dairy maintained a steady trot. It had not only survived two world wars, but also the competition from the large, corporate dairies, which had pushed many local dairies out of business. Despite being overtaken by huge social and technological advances, the family continued to run the business on traditional lines - while the world marvelled at the race into space, the Joys were still busy delivering milk in a horse-drawn van.
For me, the dairy was a magical place. The smells, sights and sounds of a working dairy were so different from everything else that was happening in the fab, swinging sixties. I've heard it said that boys in the fifties wanted to be their dads, whereas boys in the sixties wanted to be the opposite of their dads. Well, as a boy that did not apply to me; I definitely wanted to be just like my dad. He seemed to be at the heart of everything that was magical about Wellington Dairy.
It was in an attempt to capture that sense of magic and adventure that I decided not to write this memoir as a retrospective, as a fifty-something adult looking back at his childhood, but rather to tell the story through the eyes of that eager-to-grow-up, eleven-year-old boy. However, an inevitable consequence of that decision was the inclusion of my gang of mates — together with all their nose-pickin', fartin', fightin' and general mischief making. Bearing in mind that content, you can perhaps imagine my trepidation in asking someone as famous as Rita Tushingham if she would be kind enough to read my manuscript and write a foreword.
To my great relief and delight, Rita found the book to be filled with "such charm and innocence" and "a pleasure to read". I can only hope that you find it so too.
My first book, My Family and Other Scousers - A Liverpool Boy's Summer of Adventure in '69 (The History Press, 2014), is a memoir. Set in the sixties, it tells the story of my childhood days spent at Wellington Dairy, the family's horse-drawn milk business in Garston, Liverpool.
Wellington Dairy was something of a time capsule - though change galloped past, the dairy maintained a steady trot. It had not only survived two world wars, but also the competition from the large, corporate dairies, which had pushed many local dairies out of business. Despite being overtaken by huge social and technological advances, the family continued to run the business on traditional lines - while the world marvelled at the race into space, the Joys were still busy delivering milk in a horse-drawn van.
For me, the dairy was a magical place. The smells, sights and sounds of a working dairy were so different from everything else that was happening in the fab, swinging sixties. I've heard it said that boys in the fifties wanted to be their dads, whereas boys in the sixties wanted to be the opposite of their dads. Well, as a boy that did not apply to me; I definitely wanted to be just like my dad. He seemed to be at the heart of everything that was magical about Wellington Dairy.
It was in an attempt to capture that sense of magic and adventure that I decided not to write this memoir as a retrospective, as a fifty-something adult looking back at his childhood, but rather to tell the story through the eyes of that eager-to-grow-up, eleven-year-old boy. However, an inevitable consequence of that decision was the inclusion of my gang of mates — together with all their nose-pickin', fartin', fightin' and general mischief making. Bearing in mind that content, you can perhaps imagine my trepidation in asking someone as famous as Rita Tushingham if she would be kind enough to read my manuscript and write a foreword.
To my great relief and delight, Rita found the book to be filled with "such charm and innocence" and "a pleasure to read". I can only hope that you find it so too.
While waiting for My Family and Other Scousers to be published I continued researching my family history and through this came to realise that although my first book marked a very early chapter in my life, it also represented the final chapter of a way of life that had stretched back over some 150 years - the way of life in question was that of the Liverpool Cowkeepers.
As well as being an intriguing aspect of local and social history, the lives and times of the Liverpool Cowkeepers also make for a fascinating story - so much so that I felt compelled to make it the subject of my second book. It is the story of the many families who, in the mid-1800s, left their farms in the Pennine Dales and relocated to the city of Liverpool in order to keep cows in their back yards and to sell fresh milk to a booming industrial population.
I spent a number of years researching the topic, searching out published and unpublished works, scrutinising archived newspapers and official documents and talking with people who have their own memories of cows being kept in Liverpool. My book, Liverpool Cowkeepers, is lavishly illustrated with photos both from my family collection and from the collections of others who have kindly permitted their use.
For further details about both books, check out my Books pages via the navigation links on the left of the screen.
In my spare time I give illustrated talks to local history and family history groups (in fact, to groups of any description) on the subject of Liverpool Cowkeepers - A Family History. Check out my Events page for my current programme of talks and for details of how to contact me to arrange a talk for your group.
Enjoy!
Dave.
As well as being an intriguing aspect of local and social history, the lives and times of the Liverpool Cowkeepers also make for a fascinating story - so much so that I felt compelled to make it the subject of my second book. It is the story of the many families who, in the mid-1800s, left their farms in the Pennine Dales and relocated to the city of Liverpool in order to keep cows in their back yards and to sell fresh milk to a booming industrial population.
I spent a number of years researching the topic, searching out published and unpublished works, scrutinising archived newspapers and official documents and talking with people who have their own memories of cows being kept in Liverpool. My book, Liverpool Cowkeepers, is lavishly illustrated with photos both from my family collection and from the collections of others who have kindly permitted their use.
For further details about both books, check out my Books pages via the navigation links on the left of the screen.
In my spare time I give illustrated talks to local history and family history groups (in fact, to groups of any description) on the subject of Liverpool Cowkeepers - A Family History. Check out my Events page for my current programme of talks and for details of how to contact me to arrange a talk for your group.
Enjoy!
Dave.
email: davejoy-author@hotmail.com