REMEMBER the good old days when two shillings would get you in the pictures, buy an ice lolly and a bar of chocolate and still leave change for the bus home!

Memories like this are brought to life in a new book Lancashire Within Living Memory, a compilation put together by members of Women's Institutes all over the North West.

When it first landed on my desk, I admit cynically, I expected it to be full of too-good-to-be-true stories about how everyone pulled together in the face of adversity, economic struggles, etc, in the 'good old days'. And indeed it is!

But it also tells of hardship and crime, and there's no glorifying the past, Lancashire in Living Memory tells it how it was!

It's a fascinating read even for someone like myself, with a memory which barely dates back to the 1960s.

Although I was at first disappointed at how few references to Preston there were, many of the stories are about places, a mere stone's throw away, and it's such an interesting book, the locality isn't secondary to the tales.

The final verdict - well worth curling up with, in front of the fire on a cold evening this winter!

Published by Countryside Books, priced £8.95.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.