Alva's Boy

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Alan Collins. Alva's Boy

ALVA'S BOY. An unsentimental memoir

For Rosaline. and the family. I never thought. I would have

Foreword

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Отрывок из книги

ALAN ALVA COLLINS was born in 1928 in Sydney. His mother died in childbirth, leaving him in the care of his father and a number of charitable children's homes. At fifteen he became an apprentice printer, and subsequently a reporter for a Sydney newspaper. By 1949 he was editor of the Sydney Jewish News. He moved to Melbourne in 1953 and worked in advertising, opening his own agency in 1972. He had married Rosaline Fox in London in 1957 and brought her to Melbourne, where they raised their family in Box Hill. But Alan had always been drawn strongly to the sea, and in 1987 they moved to beachside Elwood, where he spent the last two decades of his life, writing fulltime. Alan Collins is the author of the trilogy A Promised Land? (2001), comprising The Boys from Bondi, Going Home and Joshua. He also published Troubles (1983), a collection of short stories. Alva's Boy was completed not long before his death in 2008.

Troubles: 21 short stories (1983)

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Enid said grimly, 'I don't think any one us will be seeing much of the child after this day.' She looked down at me and shook her head. 'Your stupid father will live to regret what he has decided, taking you away from a good home.' Mrs O'Donohue could contain her tears no longer and sobbed deeply as Grandma, followed by Aunt Enid holding the baby awkwardly, went back down the garden path, climbed into the car and never looked back.

As one of the men joked later, the scene outside the rabbi's house reminded him of the bunch that stood around outside the SP bookmaker's on a Saturday afternoon. When the black car drew up, their first reaction was to scatter. Alf got out and asked, 'Where's Sam?'

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