I started out with nothing (and they say I shall leave with nothing - but as a precaution I have asked my wife to place a few fivers in my pockets - just in case), came from a poor family in the East End Docklands, but despite all the odds against me I managed to make a success of my life.  From the late 1950s up to 1968 I was the Director responsible for sales and marketing of Czechoslovak confectionery products in the UK. This led me to many adventures and interesting experiences. I started my own business from nothing importing chocolate and sugar confectionery from various countries. I retired early, built our dream villa on the Costa Blanca, Spain, and enjoyed 9 years fantastic holidays before returning to England to end our retirement. Now we live in a small village in Devon and we are very content here.

My books are essentially the story of my life. I describe old London as it used to be before the war - a London we shall never, ever, see the like of again. The 1930s were hard all over the world but of course it hit the poorest hardest - and that meant us in the East End Docklands. Unemployment was the biggest problem for most men and, therefore, the consequent shortage of funds to feed their families. It was a very difficult period. It took a war - the worst war in the history of mankind - to bring improvements - but what a price we had to pay for those improvements. So I tell about the war leading up to my joining the army in 1946, the situation I was faced with when demobbed. I was very fortunate and made progress in business and made many trips behind the Iron Curtain at the height of the Cold War. But eventually I wanted to run my own business. Without capital to speak of I managed to establish such a business - still in chocolates and sweets - and never looked back.

We owned our own warehouse in Sutton, Surrey, and our business was thriving.

But my wife and I came to a crossroads in our lives and, as I have written above, we decided that the good life was more important than money. And so we closed down our business, built our lovely villa in Spain, and retired there for 9 years. We returned to England in 1994 and established ourselves in the charming little village of Cheriton Bishop where we live happily.

Today I walk (I am 80 but can still cover 5 miles per day), I write to friends and family all over the world, we have given up travel - too many people, much queuing and waiting around. We enjoyed the best when we travelled - what goes on now is the worst. We are very happy at home. We like to go out to eat and at home we do not stint ourselves and enjoy good food and wine. Life has treated us very kindly and my wife and I appreciate that very much. Next year we shall receive our letter from Her Majesty, The Queen having been married for 60 years and we are both looking forward to our Diamond Wedding very much indeed.
 

Website:  http://www.davidjmitchell.co.uk/

Publisher's Website:  www.melrosebooks.co.uk

Books

A Boy From Nowhere - Volume One:   A Boy From Nowhere (Volume 1 of 2) is the true, dramatic, but easy reading, life story of a man's rise from poverty to prosperity commencing with a description of the hard times of the 1920-1930's which existed in the backstreets and slums of London's East End Docklands. Leaving school at 14, as most working class lads did then, and without any educational qualifications the story plots his fight to gain success against all odds and tells how he rose to become UK Director responsible for the sale and distribution of all Czechoslovak confectionery products; this brought him into close contact with the communist world, with spies, and explains how and why he assisted MI6. Eventually he started and developed his own successful business which enabled him to retire early and begin a new life in Spain. He describes his life there and tells why he and his wife decided to return to the UK to live after 9 wonderful years during which the author claims that he saw the very last of 'good old Spain'. It is a book which, once started, the reader will find very hard to put down.   Buy Now!   A Boy From Nowhere - Volume Two: This book is the sequel to Volume One of A Boy From Nowhere which was released in the latter part of 2007. This is Volume Two which will be available from September 2008 and of course continues from where the narrative ended in Volume One. For those who read Volume One then I would suggest that this book should be read because otherwise the whole story is incomplete. I had sufficient feedback and publicity on radio, various publications, as well as by direct contact, to know that the first part of my story of a boy's rise, against all odds, from poverty to prosperity was well received. This, therefore, is the second part and brings us completely up to date.   Buy Now!