I don't especially like Leslie Thomas' novels, but I love his two autobiographical books, This Time Next Week and In My Wildest Dreams.
They are heartwarming, and cheer you up - Leslie Thomas had a rotten childhood in lots of ways - father dies at sea; mother dies of cancer and he and his brother are taken away from their home in Wales to a big Barnardo's orphanage in England. But he makes the best of it, and gets a lot of fun and pleasure out of life even though he has a lot of hard knocks (the worst of which is separation from his brother, who is fostered. They lose touch with one another for several years.)
'In My Wildest Dreams' takes up where 'This Time Next Week' leaves off. Leslie Thomas manages to get work as a journalist (he'd said to the head of the Barnardo's Home that he wanted to be a writer. 'Yes, boy', he is told, 'We'll find you a job as a waiter in a very fine restaurant.')
The pleasure Leslie Thomas takes in life makes 'In My Wildest Dreams' a very funny read at times. I remember one episode when he, as a young reporter, goes to catch up on any news available from the secretary of the local Cacti and Succulent Society. The pair of them end up rolling around together on the floor, until she hears her husband arriving, and pushes L.T. out the door, saying 'We'll have to carry on next week'!
It's lovely to read an account of a life where the writer is so genuinely knocked out by his good fortune in becoming successful, firstly as a journalist and then as a writer of books.
A really nice man, Leslie Thomas, and those two autobiographical books of his are lovely comfort reads.