Twice the Man

About the Book

Rod Angell has woven the details of his eventful life into a vivid story of “rags to a comparatively comfortable retirement.” He was born in 1929, the year of the Wall Street Crash and the poverty of his family, struggling in the Depression to live and care for their children on a scanty income; however, all this was of lesser importance to him in later life than being born in the same year as Popeye! Follow the account of a Yorkshire tyke as he reveals in quite vivid detail the life of a childhood in the ’30s, enduring all the gamut of childhood ailments and disease in a time before drugs, antibiotics, and the wonder of penicillin. He discusses life as a wartime evacuee, progressing with humorous anecdotes and drama into a challenging, action-filled life as a Grenadier Guardsman on active service and then a drummer to the Royal Household, with all the pomp and ceremony that was his lot. He also tells of the many royal and state occasions he was a part of. The final part of his working life was as a firefighter, with its many challenges, ending his career in the rank of divisional commander. This book is not the story of two men, but of one who, after a demanding life as a soldier, followed by a dangerous one as a firefighter, surely became twice the man he was.

About the Author

Another autobiography? Not likely! Rather, a collection of some memories from my childhood days which were lived through the early years of depression, then learning to accept a boyhood lived within the confines and shortages of war for six long years, finally followed by forty years in uniform. Every small boy has dreams of what he would like to be when he grows to be a man, and I was no exception save that I had two visions of my future place in the grown up world, and whenever anyone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, my reply was always the same “I want to be a soldier wearing a black fur hat outside the King’s palace, or a Fireman who drives a big red Fire Engine with a loud bell on it!” As fate had it, I was very fortunate in achieving not one, but both ambitions in my manhood, as a Grenadier Guardsman, and a Firefighter hence my title of ‘TWICE THE MAN’ When I retired finally from the Fire and Rescue Service, I became active in another direction for a further thirty years, becoming involved in a variety of exciting and rewarding ventures, but that will have to be the stuff of another book, and I wonder if I would be treading on the toes of a certain Mr Harry Lime, if I were to entitle that result “A THIRD MAN”?........time will tell…