LANCASHIRE people, famed for their friendliness and good humour, are the subject of another book by former Preston pensioner Kay Davenport.

Kay, a 77-year-old widow, has written five books in all, three of which she has published herself, including her most recent - Lancashire Laugh Lines - which has already sold nearly 7,000 copies.

Her latest work is a hilarious collection of verse in Lancashire dialect featuring snippets about growing up in Preston.

A former pupil of Grimshaw Street School, Kay contrasts her own upbringing with that of the girls from Lark Hill.

She writes: "The nuns were as gently beings from another world and even the convent girls seemed not to be of our common clay, they were so sedate.

"To see them move about in crocodile formation, flanked by gliding nuns, was a lesson to us kids from Grimshaw Street School in how little ladies should behave."

Kay was first inspired to write after noticing oddities of local history. She said: "My husband and his sister were brought up by their grandfather, a coachman in Oldham. Outside their cottage was a coachman's horn and they had obviously ridden in a coach.

"I found it so interesting that in their lifetimes they had actually taken part in local history. So I wanted to get it down on paper for others to read about."

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