This Time Next Week

by Leslie Thomas

This Time Next Week (Biography & Memoirs)

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, War

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

Born in Newport, Monmouthshire, 1931, Leslie Thomas is the son of a sailor who was lost at sea in 1943. His boyhood in an orphanage is evoked in This Time Next Week, published in 1964. At sixteen, he became a reporter, before going on to do his national service. He won worldwide acclaim with his bestselling novel The Virgin Soldiers, which has achieved international sales of over four million copies.

Reviews

[Aaron Bright · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another amazing book by an incredible author. How I wish I could use words the way he does.

[Jody Nicholson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Refreshing to read that not everyone who went to a children's home was abused or mistreated. What I would call a 'nice' story.

[John W · Rating 4 out of 5]

Autobiography of the first 30 years of his life, born in Newport, my home town, placed in an orphanage at age 14. His National Service formed the basis for The Virgin Soldiers. Enjoyed it

[Cris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unsentimental, beautifully written autobiography. Someone one would like to meet.

[Igenlode Wordsmith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very evocative, extremely well written evocation of a world and an era. Avoids cliché and 'misery-lit' tropes while describing both the happiness and unhappiness of his past self and of institutional life in the 1940s.
It's clear to see why the adults in his life thought he had the potential to be a writer (which, for a Barnardo's boy, meant being put forward for a career in journalism...)

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I stumbled across this and remembered enjoying it at school many years ago (one of those texts you read in class aged 12 or so....). A really nice little memoir - 3* really, but plus 1* for the warm nostalgic glow.

[Alan Stuart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anecdotal account of the author's boyhood years in children's homes during the second world war and afterwards. Some lovely description, and a smattering of character, humour and sadness