Former Bulwell man set to publish his old 1960s school diary as his first book

John Teasdale’s book Diary of a 60s’ Teenager is due to be published on January 26. It is John’s own diary entries from his time at Ellis Secondary School for Boys.

John said: “I am a former Bulwell boy and I attended Ellis Secondary School between 1959 and 1964.

“It was there, between 1962 and 1964, that our English teacher Keith ‘Flash’ Gordon required us to keep a weekly diary.

“I’ve kept this all these years and often thought it was worth publishing and so this is the result.”

After finishing school as a pupil, John went back to school and started his teaching career in 1970 at Springfield Junior School at the edge of Bulwell Hall Estate.

After four years at Springfield, he moved to Ambleside Junior School at Aspley and then in September 1976 moved, not just to a new job, but a new country after he secured a post at St Christopher’s School in Bahrain, where he picked up more than just teaching experience in a foreign land.

John recalled: "I went as a bachelor and returned to UK in January 1991 with my wife and three children.”

The family was forced to leave Bahrain due to the imminent start of the first Gulf War after Iraq invaded Kuwait.

John said: “We left after receiving our gas masks from the army at The British Club.”

The family did not return to Nottinghamshire when they came back to the UK, but instead settled in Somerset, where they owned a small independent school for 24 years, while at the same time building up a group of four dementia nursing homes which they still own today.

However, thoughts and memories of Bulwell were never far away and now John is looking forward to sharing some of them with everyone else in his new book.

He said: “I enjoyed growing up in Bulwell and my desire to become a teacher really started when I attended Cantrell Infant School, a recently-built school in 1953, which I loved.

“From there I moved to the not so salubrious premises of Highbury Junior School.

“There I attended the Saturday afternoon ‘tanner rush’ at the Highbury Cinema.

“Going to Ellis, I could catch the trolley bus from Piccadilly to Basford Crossings for 1d, or the number seven from Bulwell Market for a similar princely sum

“My junior school and teenage years were happily spent playing at Bulwell Hall Park, Bulwell Common and gallantly facing the freezing water of Bulwell Lido.

“Prior to leaving for Bahrain in 1976, my mother and I sold our house in Bulwell for £8,000 and I bought a bungalow for her at Aspley which cost £15,250.

“That’s when my annual teacher’s salary was about £3,500, but that doubled on going to the wonderful tax- free shores of Bahrain.”

The book will be available priced at £7.99 and all royalties will go to the relief of Ukrainian refugee children.