Wild Oats and the Wooden Pillow

The Twenty-Two Press: The Twenty-Two Press, 2004. First Edition (presumed; no prior editions or printings cited). Paperback quarto in picotrial dark b;lue glossy wraps; 403 pages mild external wear, mainly to edges; else very good to vg(-) thus. Binding tight ; no ink or other markings, . Paperback. ISBN: 0954720008

Memoir. Uncommon. From rear wrap: "Abandoned as a newborn baby in 1923, Derrick Cartlidge was unwanted and unloved. No one ever took responsibility for him, and he endured years of shocking neglect and abuse. Yet he grew up full of zest for life, with a warm heart, an independent outlook, and glorious disregard for authority.His story is rich in comedy as he describes his escapades as farmhand, film extra, soldier, merchant seaman and Soho bum. Always in hot water, and always chasing girls. But it has a dark side: childhood sexual abuse, and later his experience, still only twenty in World War II, where his pacifist principles land him in solitary confinement and severely beaten.Told with rigorous honesty, this is a unique account of growing up outside the system. Moving, funny, and often profoundly disturbing, it is a fine testament to a young man's courage and his will not just to survive but to love life."In this gripping because unmediated book, the distance between experience and narration is minimal. The voice has lived what it is telling, and it's a voice one respects because of the guts with which it has taken risks and will continue to take more. A booligan book about courage. When once you've heard Derrick Cartlidge, you go on listening."John Berger"Derrick Cartlidge's has been an amazing life, one almost unimaginable to most readers. It chronicles an entire period: the social, combat and often, sexual history of one of the most extraordinary experiences of the twentieth century.We are transported to a world right next to us but completely invisible to most of us living our most ordinary lives. And the book has a freshness that no fiction writer could ever, in his or her wildest dreams, hope to achieve."Robert Ornstei"