Smorgasbord Bookshelf – New Book on the Shelves – #Biography #WWI, Queen Victoria, #Adventures, Lucky Jack by S. Bavey

Posted on January 17, 2022 by Smorgasbord - Variety is the Spice of Life.

Delighted to share the recently published biography by S. Bavey about her grandfather who led a very full and colourful life by the sound of it. Lucky Jack.

Meet S. Bavey

Sue Bavey (writing as S. Bavey) is an English Mum of two, living in Massachusetts since 2003 with her husband, kids, a cat named Midnight, a bunny named Nutmeg, a leopard gecko named Ziggy Stardust and occasional frogs and salamanders.

“Lucky Jack is the first book I have written and is my grandfather, Henry John Rogers’ biography. Grandad lived with us when I was born, until we moved when I was six years old. Then he came back to live with us in my teenage years and we were very close.

He was my father’s father, but my Mum diligently collected the newspaper columns he dictated to a local reporter, and kept them in scrapbooks in her attic, where they gathered dust and yellowed over time. A few years ago I moved my Mum into an apartment and found all the scrapbooks in the process. I wanted to get all of those stories into a book for my kids to read. That was the germ of an idea which – thanks to my having time during Covid lockdown – has now resulted in the life story of my grandfather, Jack Rogers being written.”

“One of the perils of being a sniper during the First World War was the likelihood of a grenade going off right next to you and burying you alive”.

Meet Jack Rogers. Born in 1894, he once locked eyes with Queen Victoria and was one of the first travellers on London’s ‘Tube’. An early car owner, he had many escapades on his days out to Brighton, including a time when his brakes failed and he had to drive through central London without them!

His skills as an entertainer earned him popularity throughout his life, and kept him out of the deadly mines while a prisoner during the First World War. At the tender age of 103 Jack earned the title of ‘The World’s Oldest Columnist’ as he began dictating his life’s exploits to a reporter from the local newspaper.

One of the recent reviews for the book

Rackman 5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating life, beautifully told Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 December 2021

Jack Rogers was a product of his time… resourceful, no nonsense, tackling life as it came at him and able to lever favour and success through his scrappy, uncomplicated pragmatism. I made this conclusion based on his fascinating story told in Lucky Jack.

This biography of his life is written by his granddaughter but in Jack’s first-person voice. It’s fascinating, endearing, scary and heartbreaking by turns. The twentieth century Jack lived through is brought to life through the events and attitudes Jack tells from his first person perspective but also in the many narrated events and communities he describes. This is a world I barely knew existed, but these rich experiences bring it sharply into relief. He recounts his experiences as a soldier and POW with typically self-effacing understatement, but the thing that really struck me was the driving sequences (something we take for granted today)! The early days of motoring were thrilling and sometimes extraordinarily dangerous in the telling!

I unreservedly recommend this biography to get to know Jack, for the rich history and the experience of the telling.

Read the reviews and buy the book: Amazon US and Amazon UK

Anthologies S. Bavey as contributed to.