Book Description

Newquay in the 1960s was the place to be. It was when surfing really took off and where the doors of every hotel and Bed and Breakfast swung open and welcomed the never-ending stream of holidaymakers. Denise Bullen's parent's lust for life, imagination and have a go mentality certainly made for a colourful childhood. Even when they lived in London's suburbia, they constantly sought new opportunities and ventures. So, it was no surprise, in 1955, when Denise was four, they bought a rundown house in Holywell Bay, North Cornwall. The beach became her new back garden and the dunes her playground. Having turned the property into holiday flats, they were initiated into a Cornish 'Summer season', where you couldn't be precious about giving up your bedroom for paying guests. Then when she was twelve, they moved into Newquay, and Denise was happily thrust into an even more wonderfully exciting, cosmopolitan frenzy. Her relationship with her Mum was a challenge at times, none more so than when she makes her leave school at sixteen. Shy and naïve, Denise struggles to fit in with the brash and confident hotel workers, from all over the country and she gets herself into some sticky scrapes. But she slowly gets an education, she never would have gotten in school. Despite her Mum's warnings, to stay away from those troublesome hotel workers, as she calls them, Denise gets involved with a Liverpool lad, which changes her life forever. If you've ever worked in the tourist industry, you will appreciate and empathize with the stories she tells and the sheer pandemonium that can go on behind the scenes. If however, you've never had the privilege of working a summer season, then be prepared for an adventurous romp through escapades that will make you laugh, shed a few tears, possibly give you panic attacks or just make you cringe. But her story begins in London, as a child in the 1950s. How the family's move to Cornwall came about, how living in Holywell Bay was magical and how growing up as a teenager in the 1960s, Newquay was just the most fantastic place to live.