Conversations with a Small Boy

The years 1930 to 1950 became one of the pivotal periods of human history, containing what came to be known as “The Great Depression” and “The war that changed the world”. This book describes these two decades as they paralleled the life and times of a young Yorkshire lad, his family living in Leeds, and the lives of Britain’s working-class people, most of whom continued to struggle as they tried to cope with life following the end of a devastating world war.

The author of “Conversations with a Small Boy”, Gerry Dubbin, is the grandson of Ashkenazi Jews who arrived as penniless refugees in Britain around the turn of the 20th century after fleeing their devasted lives and homes in Russian-dominated Lithuania. His story shows how the people around him lived as he grew up and came to enter the wholesale clothing industry then based in central Leeds.

This incisive depiction of a declining Britain shows how Dubbin’s early experiences led to him rejecting the ancient faith and religious tenets of his forebears. His later views on deistic religions, and his recounting of political events that shook the troubled post-war world, make for compelling and thought-provoking reading.