Uncle Amos Wins By Half a Century

Amos Almond

Amos Almond, Printer produced this

The Almonds of Felling
Have a prodigious publishing thirst
David got there with Skillig
But Uncle Amos got there first
...by 50 years

Read all about Amos by his nephew, David

and read this and more, if you google "Interview David Almond. Scottish Book Trust 4th October 2011"

 David Almond is very proud of his start in life in Felling

 

..."Think I’d began to be a writer when I was baby, a time I can’t even remember. When I was a baby just a few months old, my mum said she used to put me in her arms and walk down the high street in Felling, which is the town I grew up in. So I grew up in a little town called Felling, across the river from Newcastle, and halfway down the hill, on the high street, there was a sign above the street which said ‘Almond Printer’, and my uncle Amos had a printing shop. My mum used to take me along the alleyway to see my uncle Amos, go into the printing shop, and she said one day she was standing there in the printing shop, with little David in her arms. Can you imagine him? He’s quite cute isn’t he? The I was in her arms and she said she was standing there one day, she was talking back and forward to my uncle Amos, and as she stood there, the printing machine started to work, and turn, and off the bottom of the printing machines came the printed pages of the local newspaper, and she said at that moment, little David Almond started to jump up and down and go, ‘Googoogagagagaga!’, pointing and laughing at the printed pages coming off the rollers. And you know the way baby’s eyes are caught by flickering lights or by birds flying overhead, my eyes were caught by print [gasp] and I went, ‘Goo!’ and I fell in love with it, and one of the things that I still love more than anything about being a writer, is just that – black print on white paper, I think is absolutely gorgeous."

Lots more Youtubes of this whole interview

Let's finish with a later pic of Amos