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Born with learning difficulties into a poor, working class family in Bradford in 1924, Harry Lawton lived a very different life always on the edge of society - on the outside looking in.
When his mother died suddenly and his father remarried, his happy childhood was gone. He was mistreated by his first step-mother, ignored by the second and unloved by his father.
Leaving school at 14, with barely the basics, he worked as a doffer (having the lowest job in the mill) until joining the army, eventually finding himself at the Battle for Monte Cassino. On his return he became estranged from his family, reduced to living in his allotment hut.
Life improved somewhat for a few years but then he became homeless once more, living in various doss houses and then in a shed in the woods. The last few years of his life saw him in the relative safety of sheltered housing but even here he was robbed and taken advantage of.
Harry never had a bank account, a mortgage, a car or a wife and children. He met all the obstacles that life threw at him without complaint, always making the best of often difficult circumstances.
The story of Harry is one of sadness and joy. He never went chasing rainbows and he could show us all how to make the most of what we have.
This book is a tribute to Harry and all those who, in the past, present and future, are out there on the edge of society.
