A Bang or a Whimper: New book from Fat Prophet

I really needed something to make me smile this week and Ian Southall, a Methodist local preacher based in Walsall, who blogs as Fat Prophet, has certainly helped.

Until last Saturday I had never met Ian, not even spoken to him on the phone. I sent him an email saying I'd buy a signed copy of his book and he dropped one off on his way back from a trip into Brum.

I must admit to some trepidation after reading the first page about his Castle Street home for nineteen years being subject to a slum clearance order. My nightmare was that it would become a first contribution to a Black Country version of Monty Python's Four Yorkshiremen sketch. Imagine Ian, myself, Bob Piper and Bob the Black County Brummie talking about our respective childhoods.

However, and fortunately, it was not to be. The Fat Prophet quickly explained how much he liked the house, especially the cellar where he played with his scalectric toy cars (to which my reaction was to say "You had scalectric cars - we had to make do with matchbox cars!").

Then the Fat Prophet takes us through a wonderful kaleidoscope of a world that has now disappeared. He was born in the Hill Top district of West Bromwich, right in the heart of the Black Country. He now lives a few miles away in Walsall. Apart from his seaside holiday in Portmadoc the entire book is set in just a few square miles of West Bromwich. He even refers to the Yew Tree Estate, also in West Bromwich being seen as a "foreign land".

Some of the detail is fascinating. He is able to give a house by house description of nearly every inhabitant in Castle Street, something that most children would struggle to do today of their own street.

He refers to people removing hats as a funeral cortege passes. Nowadays few wear hats and I notice that as I remove my cap, I'm the only one doing so.

His descriptions of childhood games is magic. I was fascinated to see that there was a season for certain games. The same thing happened a hundred and twenty miles away in London where I lived at the same time. I don't know who devised the system but primary school children seem to have a sense that a new season had begun.

Several times his irritation at health and safety legislation comes out. He did things, as we did, in the 1950s and 1960s that are simply not permissible for today's children.

However this book is valuable in creating a benchmark to show how much our communities have changed. Where Ian covers employment - "walk out of one job on Friday and start a new job on Monday" - and refers to the big manufacturing firms in the Black Country you understand how industry and the pattern of employment has changed.

There's an interesting point about the makeup of the small Sunday School at the Bethesda Chapel that he attended. The teachers were very local people with jobs such as railway signalman, dry cleaners, postman and factory workers. Such people are rarely found today holding any position of responsibility in any denomination. Few churches even have Sunday Schools.

Ian's descriptions of popular culture - television programmes, wrestling, and pop records - are certainly enjoyable for those who were there with him at the time and stirred many a happy memory.

I suspect that this book will sell well in West Bromwich. I'm sure it is the sort of thing that the local schools and libraries will stock and no doubt Ian will get invitations to go and talk about his years in Hill Top. In fact, who knows, there may even be a "Fat Prophet Tour" as he shows the sites of his various escapades?

This book will create interest beyond West Bromwich. I can imagine it being a source for researchers at the London Museum of Childhood, and I hope they get a copy.

I must warn readers though that pages 30 and 31 contain material of a rather "adult nature" as he describes activities in the park, though certainly not offensive, more eye brow raising!

Now there is a dominant theme through much of the book and we get plenty of clues as to why Ian is known in Walsall Methodism and the blogging community as "Fat Prophet".

Ian likes his food! Even descriptions of routine shopping expeditions rate the highlight as a visit to various cafes. It seems that every few pages there are references to fish and chip shops. In fact there is a whole chapter devoted to fish and chips and another to sweets!

Once again the descriptions of fish and chip shops are detailed with nuances about both the chips and the fish. Once again an interesting social point: the names of the fish and chip shop owners were Price, Wills, Tandy, Codger, Guest and Mitchell. That just won't be the case today. Twenty or thirty years ago English names of chip shop owners in West Bromwich gave way to Greek names, these in turn have given away to Asian and even Polish names as new migrants take on responsibility for providing this great British institution.

I really enjoyed reading this book and I hope Ian sells a pile. Those who read it and persevere will be blessed. He obviously had a happy childhood and it is good to see family and community life portrayed so positively.


A bang or a Whimper: A Hill Top Kid Remembers by Ian Southall 2009; self published, details available from Fat Prophet website.

Other reviews by Methodist Preacher:
Wreckers and Builders? A History of Labour MEPs 1979-1999 by Anita Pollack
The roots of terrorism by Geoffrey Whitfield
Shades of Grey by Dudley Coates
Where are the Prophets? by Terry Wynn MEP
No time for Romance by Lucilla Andrews