This is the biography of an elderly gentleman who used to fix my bicycle and who once ran three scout groups.  We were friends for 30 years. I was glad to be able to send him a nice dummy of this book draft before he died in spring 2021. 

Still looking for a publisher though!

ARTHUR is a graphic novel for middle-grade and older readers. It incorporates a child’s experience of the 1930s Depression and WWlI, the Festival of Britain, the first moon landings, a London adventure and an Italian palace; and intersperses social history with recipes, examples of kindness to strangers, and tips on building campfires. 

The text is a voice-over narrated by one of Arthur’s scouts, now an adult, who visits him in old age. The first half of the book describes Arthur’s childhood; in the second half the narrator reminisces about how, through various trips and adventures, Arthur’s decency and self-reliance had a lasting influence on him.

The book includes different forms of transport - steam trains, donkey rides, a penny-farthing, horse-drawn carts, go-karts, bicycles, motorbikes, the Far Tottering and Oyster Creek Railway, vintage cars, the moon landings, and the Simplon Tunnel rail link - and ends with a hovercraft mobility scooter, which the narrator brings Arthur as a gift.