Putting My Past Behind Me - A Family Story

Book excerpt: South London musician, composer, writer and historian Chris Shields investigates his varied and unusual family tree. ?I spent my childhood asking questions about my family's past. This led to tales of Romanies, of the Northamptonshire Smiths, Loveridges, Scarrotts and Boswells and the discovery of Charlie Chaplin's birth in a caravan on the Black Patch.Then to the French Mazoyers and a watchmaker's shop in Soho. Stories of Evans and Wormull ? surgical instrument makers to the Army and government. Then the Baker family of Eastbourne and Herstmonceux. Seaside concert parties ? Fred Austin's Merrie Middies. Then to war and Stalag IVb POW, buzzbombs and blackouts. The Snell family of Mortimer and the Arlotts of Watership Down. The Shields family of Peckham ? pie, mash and poverty. Then to music - the '60s and The Twilights and the Star Club, Hamburg. This information shared here was told to me directly from the mouths of those involved ? who lived, breathed and experienced all of this.""