"I am glad to have savoured the ancient peace of that time, and the essential qualities of stability, security and contentment by which it was characterised remain so fixed in my mind that the memory has served as a standard by which succeeding decades may be measured".

My Grandfather Thomas Moody was born in Amble, Northumberland in 1901. In his boyhood people still moved about the countryside using horse traps, but by the time he was in his 60's the world had progressed to space flight. An incredible time to live through.

Thomas was gifted in many ways and a brilliant wordsmith. He was a person of boundless energy and wide interests and kept a diary through most of his life, writing, illustrating, commenting on events both in his immediate sphere and the world around him. The result was 23 hand written and hand bound volumes which he titled "Reminiscor" (I remember).

"As I was swarming up, a plank gave way beneath my foot; but I succeeeded in extricating it and with fear at my heels scuttled upwards, reached the wall and quickly dropped over".

The extracts in this book are taken from the first volume and reproduce his hand lettered impressions of living on the beautiful Northumberland coast on the early 1900's. The story is told in his own words, with images of his careful hand written pages, painstakingly scanned and reproduced together with some of his illustrations. The result is a marvellously evocative and nostalgic account of life in the English countryside before the great war: "before the lamps went out".