A TANTALISING glimpse of life in southern Oxfordshire villages just after the war is revealed in one resident's new memoir.

Alfred James has recounted his idiosyncratic childhood in the Hanneys, near Wantage, in his book 'Hanney - Life in an Old Berkshire Village 1940 - 1950'.

Mr James moved to East Hanney in 1940, went to primary school in the village then King Alfred's in Wantage.

He later worked at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment in Harwell in the late 40s.

The book has been published by Stanford Publishing, based in nearby Stanford in the Vale.

Managing director Richard Astell said: "Alfred James takes us on an amusing and nostalgic journey along the highways and byways of that part of Oxfordshire that was formerly part of north Berkshire.

"An extraordinary array of memorable characters illuminate the pages including Black Annie, Canon Peacock and his dancing daughters, the boy who played marbles with his own glass eye, and the Harwell engineer with a sideline in respraying stolen cars.

"With fascinating background historical descriptions of people and places in old north Berks, this book will be sure to delight anyone who lives or has lived in the area or who has an interest in social history from a bygone era."

Find out more at stanfordpublishing.co.uk