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Alfie Charles is a Londoner and natural storyteller whose memoir, Growing Up in Britain: A London Childhood, 1948–1970, takes readers on a warm, funny and wonderfully nostalgic journey through growing up in post-war Britain.
Born into the baby boomer generation, Alfie experienced first-hand a country changing at extraordinary speed — from the austerity and traditional values of the 1950s to the excitement, freedom and cultural revolution of the Swinging Sixties.
Through vivid memories of family life, school days, friendships, football, childhood adventures and first loves, Alfie brings this vanished world back to life with humour, honesty and affection. His stories capture not only the big social changes of the era, but the small everyday moments that made growing up at that time so memorable.
Growing Up in Britain is more than one man's story. It is a celebration of a generation — and an invitation to remember, smile and discover just how different childhood once was.
Alfie Charles
Alfie Charles is a Londoner, storyteller and proud member of the baby boomer generation whose writing captures what it really felt like to grow up in post-war Britain.
Born into a world very different from the one we know today, Alfie grew up during a remarkable period of British social and cultural change. His childhood began in the austere years following the Second World War and unfolded through the 1950s and into the extraordinary transformation of London during the 1960s.
In Growing Up in Britain: A London Childhood, 1948–1970, Alfie looks back on those formative years with warmth, humour and refreshing honesty. Rather than attempting to write a history book, he tells the story from the perspective of someone who was actually there — remembering the families, friendships, schools, streets, football, first loves and everyday adventures that shaped a generation.
His memories offer a window into a Britain of greater freedom for children, strong neighbourhood communities and simpler pleasures, while also acknowledging the hardships and attitudes that belonged to the era.
At the heart of Alfie's writing is his ability to find humour in ordinary life. His stories are affectionate without being overly sentimental and candid without losing their warmth.
Growing Up in Britain is both Alfie's personal memoir and a celebration of a generation whose childhood began in the shadow of war and came of age as Britain entered one of the most exciting periods of cultural change in its history.
For readers who lived through those years, Alfie hopes his stories will bring forgotten memories flooding back.
For those who didn't, he invites them to discover what growing up in Britain really felt like.
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Alfie Charles is a Londoner, storyteller and proud member of the baby boomer generation whose writing captures what it really felt like to grow up in post-war Britain.
Born into a world very different from the one we know today, Alfie grew up during a remarkable period of British social and cultural change. His childhood began in the austere years following the Second World War and unfolded through the 1950s and into the extraordinary...
Growing Up in Britain: A London Childhood, 1948–1970
What was it really like to grow up in Britain when childhood meant freedom, money was scarce, and the world was changing faster than anyone realised?
Born into working-class North London just after the Second World War, Alfie Charles entered a Britain still recovering from conflict—a world of tight family budgets, school football and cricket,...
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