Step into the Rainbow - Colin R Brookfield (best selling autobiographies TXT) 📗

Trevor Baylis

1937 - 2018

Colin and I stem from the same group of acrobatic enthusiasts back in the early sixties. Each weekend we would all descend on the local swimming baths with devastating effects.

Since those times Colin, like the rest of us, has gone his own separate way of inventiveness. It must have been something in the water!

The book is a compilation that works its way from an imaginative narrative into light-hearted anecdotes and poetry, before finishing on a more serious note with a dissertation and its associated poetry.

Trevor Baylis OBE CBE

 

Step into the Rainbow

by

Colin R. Brookfield

 

©1998 C R Brookfield (Publisher)

ISBN Softback: 978-0-9532635-0-9

ISBN Hardback: 978-1-9163819-0-2

 

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in the whole or in part of any form whatsoever.

This book is sold subject to the conditions that it shall not by way of trade or otherwise be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published.

 

Drawings by Colin R. Brookfield

 

For her patience and tolerance,

my thanks go to my wife Anne

without whom I could never have

finished this book.

Contents

 

About the Author

 

Foreword

 

Grandfather’s Legacy

 

Anecdotes and Poetry

 

Step into the Rainbow (Dissertation and accompanying verse)

 

Index with Category

 

Further information

 

By the Same Author

 

About the Author

Colin Brookfield’s life has been a balancing act between many occupations. Born in 1932 he left school at fourteen. He was put to the building trade and in later life ran his own business for several decades.

He ran away to sea at sixteen and sailed around the world with the P&O ship SS Corfu until he was eighteen when he was called up to do his National Service in the army. He became a Physical Training Instructor (PTI) and whilst stationed in Germany, went on to become the individual fencing champion of BAOR (British Army of the Rhine) and nominated for the Royal Tournament.

After leaving the army he was eventually drawn into local functions with his acrobatic speciality act (Duo Collise), which in turn led to an agent and paid appearances.

Vocal training followed and for many years, he sang locally as a solo tenor, accompanied by his wife Anne on the piano and later in light entertainment with Anne.

In 1968, he and his wife Anne emigrated to Australia and travelled 28,000 miles around the continent before settling on the Gold Coast.

They returned to England after five years where Colin resumed business in London. Anne worked in the music industry of EMI Records and later with British Airways, until her retirement.

He has always been intensely interested in human nature and, his lifelong ambition has been to express his observations and solutions as to the anomalies of mankind and his books have now gone into the subject more fully.

Three of his books, (The Summerhouse Journals Trilogy) The Summerhouse, Summerhouse Timeshift and Summerhouse Stepping Stones, were a break from reality but still had aspects open to question.

He has acquired several patents (one presently being developed in China). His inventive interests and other hobbies included sub-aqua, water skiing, surfboard riding and hang gliding.

Anne was classically trained on the piano and, both she and Colin used to be members of oratorio choral and musical societies in Australia, London, Dorset and later, in Cyprus.

In 2007 they moved with their two Siamese cats, Sable, Sapphire and Amber, their black domestic, to Paphos in Cyprus. Sadly, all the cats passed on during their seven years on the island. They have since rescued four feral Cyprus cats, Millie, Dobby, Pippin and Bravie and in 2014, brought them all back to Somerset in England, where they are thriving and playing for the first time on green grass.

Foreword

My book is divided into three parts. The first, Grandfather’s Legacy is a short story for which I drew upon the fond memories of my early days. They hark back to the beautiful Midlands countryside in the 1930s where the memories still remind me of how difficult life was for those who served the land and who often lived in solitary places. These were people who drew upon the past in an ageless continuity, for they were locked into the fabric of a system over which they had little control. Changes, when they did come, were usually at a slow and barely perceptible rate, and in these places, last to arrive. Faster change did arrive of course, and in the process, old ways were disconnected forever.

Looking back, I sometimes wonder how modern people would survive that old, isolated way of life. To rise or fall according to ones own abilities and the vicissitudes of Nature. Could we envisage a life where income was so low that one grew most of what one wanted to eat or went hungry? For those people there were no refrigerators, washing machines, heating, electricity, gas or piped water. The disposal of all waste products was a personal responsibility. From our modern perspective, it sounds rather depressing, though in my brief sojourn within the old ways, the people that I knew seemed to exist in a more contented way than we do now.

The second part of my book, Anecdotes and Poetry is a mixture of poems and memories, some of which are humorous (I hope you find them so) and others convey some depth of human feeling. All the anecdotes that refer to the young boy are factual accounts.

The third and final part is a dissertation with accompanying verse upon which I have actually based my book, inviting you to Step into the Rainbow and to read it with a little more depth of feeling. It covers the more serious side of human nature and it is my hope that the thoughts that lie within it will pass something on.

Grandfather’s Legacy

 

Peter stared forlornly at the television and muttered to himself, “Damn garage, full of promises, what a joke. Here I am with no car, and no holiday either, if my promised lift to Shropshire in the morning turns out to be as reliable as the garage.”

“I hope you’re going to put the garage and work out of your mind for the next few weeks,” said his wife Jill as she bustled into the room, bearing a tray of coffee and biscuits. “Darling, I wish you wouldn’t wear that vulgar ring,” she added with a slight grimace.

“I really should wear it for a while Jill, after all, it’s scarcely a month since my grandfather passed away and it was a thoughtful present. Besides, there’s a real gold sovereign set within it.”

“I don’t care! You’re not a barrow boy. Now, perhaps it might be an idea if we check through the holiday itinerary,” she said while pressing the ‘off’ button on the television remote, and withdrawing a neatly folded sheet of paper from the further side of the coffee tray. “I had a word with George today about giving you a lift to Shropshire during his weekly business trip there, and I must say, he was rather envious of your week’s fishing trip. However, he sees no problem about tomorrow morning, even though it’s slightly off his usual course to your drop-off point. He’ll be here at seven-thirty and suggested you both have breakfast along the way.”

“It makes sense,” Peter replied, “anyway, it will give me an opportunity to fill your brother’s petrol tank; I already feel guilty about my heavy cases and fishing tackle cluttering up his car boot space.” He put his cup down. “To be on the safe side, I’d better jot down a few details in my notebook. Now, according to the country cottage brochure, Bramble Lane should be approximately seven miles past the village on the right-hand side, and the cottage is about one hundred yards along the lane. I understand it’s occupied by an elderly couple.”

Jill moved the tray to one side, making room for Peter’s small notebook. “By the way,” she said, “make a note of our holiday flight times. We have to meet no later than eight thirty in the morning at Terminal Four at Heathrow on Friday the