Grappling with Ghosts: Childhood Memories from Postwar Ireland and London

by James Harvey

From time as a child in an orphanage to writing speeches for presidents, James Harvey traveled a rocky road to live out the American dream.In this memoir of his childhood, Harvey recreates the strange and remote realities of the daily struggles of life in post-war rural Ireland and bomb-shattered London. Ireland, just 30 years removed from 700 years of British domination, had scarcely emerged from the 19th century. It remained a “priest-ridden, God-forsaken race,” in James Joyce’s acerbic description. London, meanwhile, shrouded in fog and greasy coal soot with armless and legless veterans everywhere you turned, was the epicenter of an exhausted debtor nation, still clinging to an image of British exceptionalism as a young Queen Elizabeth took the throne and the empire circled the drain.

This engaging memoir grounds the struggles of the Harveys in both Irish history and British snobbery as the family fought for a place in the world amidst the alcohol-fueled domestic violence so common in Ireland’s “33rd county,” the Kilburn area bordering London’s Paddington and St. John’s Wood neighborhoods. It takes the reader from the day in 1944 when the author and his twin brother were delivered by their grandmother in a thatched Irish cottage to the day in 1958 when the family climbed aboard a plane for a 14-hour, non-stop flight from London to New York.

BlueInk Reviews hails his “storytelling prowess.”

Foreword Reviews praises a “mature, professional voice” that is “poignant” and “fascinating.”

346 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 25, 2025

About the author

James Harvey, husband and father, has been a bartender, truck driver, boxer, public speaker, university official, and presidential speechwriter.

A native of Donegal, Ireland, he was educated in England, Ireland, and the United States. Early in his professional career, he served on the staff of the U.S. Congress and as a lobbyist for the Carter White House. A graduate of Villanova University, he has trained school superintendents in the United States, lectured on education all over the world, and holds a master's degree in history from the University of Pittsburgh and a doctorate from Seattle University.

BlueInk Reviews hailed Harvey's "storytelling prowess" and "dozens" of "gripping page-turners" in Grappling With Ghosts. Clarion Reviews commented on a "timely memoir of international displacement" and "mature, professional voice." Irish Post noted the book "captures the strangeness and struggle of a lost world."

Reviews

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC

Grappling with Ghosts is a raw and fascinating memoir, window into Irish history and the challenges faced. James Harvey brings his story to life effortlessly and really allows us to experience his story right along side him. His narration is strong, effective and really engaging. I thoroughly enjoyed this glimpse into his life and journey he experienced along the way. A powerful memoir and an important bit of first hand history.

[Syntaxx]

i dont rate memoirs.