Memoir takes us back to a bygone time

It was a cold February night in Melbourne in 1931 at the height of the depression and was the start of a tough life of little money or education, of being on the road with his dad "King Bob", of stealing and running from the law, of broken hearts and broken relationships.

King Bob and his boy Jumbo is a memoir of a bygone time written by George Watts, now in his 90s.

It tell the story of a boy called "The Pineapple Kid" by locals in the inner suburbs of Melbourne and Jumbo by his dad. A boy who spent his babyhood in a wooden pineapple box on the back of a cart as King Bob, king of the bottleos worked the back lanes of Collingwood collecting beer bottles and scrap iron.

It's a fascinating tale of survival against the odds, and the bond that grew between a boy and his father.

Suckled by local breastfeeding women for a few coins and washed in horse troughs, the boy grew up catching rabbits, learning the bottleo trade and earning pennies to feed his dad's alcholism and stave off starvation.

Jumbo became King Bob's largely unschooled sidekick, as his dad engaged in a nefarious deals on the side, caroused in pubs and scrambled from one rooming house to another, and one woman to another.

Although a memoir, the book is also an exuberant narrative as the unruly pair romp from one adventure to another in the backstreets of Melbourne and rural Victoria. Virtually every chapter sees King Bob and Jumbo experience another escapade.

Sometimes told through the eyes of a child and later that of a young man, King Bob and his boy Jumbo is a historical gem of a book, both funny and tragic; at times full of pathos and at others a cheeky recollection of a world which no longer exists.

This is a rare book, written with a generosity of spirit and optimism and rare insight into the nature of relationships. It also remind us of the many wonderful true stories out there among our older Aussies that should be written before it's too late.

George began writing quite late in life. His first story, My Dad, was published in a book of short stories called The Man Who Played Spoons. His second story, Looking Back, won first prize in a competition run by the city of Casey.

He is also the author of the book Lunch Boy and Other Stories.

King Bob and his boy Jumbo. Published by Shawline. $19.95. www.shawlinepublishing.com.au