People of the Cut - Tapa blanda

A family evicted from their home; no employment, with winter coming and destitution looming are forced to move miles away to rebuild their life. The Banham family were used to the fine things and a settled life. The move to the site of the Manchester Ship Canal brings them to a hutted contractor s settlement on a marsh by the banks of the river Mersey.Appalling conditions, the apparent roughness of the other people in the village gives lie to the strong camaraderie and the kindness they experience which makes life more bearable.The womenfolk are particularly affected, and Thomas Banham worries constantly over his wife Beth, and their daughter. But in this grim setting, romance comes to Victoria and each of them find the road to a brighter future.

Don left school at the age of fourteen and started to work for the Manchester Ship Canal Company. He serves a seven year apprenticeship in the Company s main engineering works, Mode Wheel Workshops at Weaste, Salford.He was apprenticed as a locomotive fitter and was then call up for National Service. He worked on all manner of machines and equipment which gave him a good grounding in engineering. During his service in the Royal electrical and Mechanical Engineers regiment (R.E.M.E.) he was introduced to other skills and experiences which broadened his horizons even more. After twenty years with the M.S.C, he took up a position with the University of Manchester as a technician at the laboratory of the Aeronautics Department, later moving to the departmental drawing office. There he was involved in the design of such things as wind tunnels and small experimental models.Due to his early years, don was inspired to write the history of the Railways of the Manchester Ship Canal and during the research for that book he came across a great many stories connected with the building of the canal which prompted him to write this novel