About this deal
This book is a compendium of actual letters which the author wrote to all kinds of people of note - all from his persona of some kind of hard core petite bourgeoise British citizen. M Godding Books Ltd is an internet book business running from Wiltshire and sending books all over the world every working day. Donaldson lived at 139 Elm Park Mansions on Park Walk, Chelsea, London SW10, from which address all the Root letters were sent. This single volume brings together "The Henry Root Letters" and "The Further Letters of Henry Root". He completed his National Service in the Royal Navy in the late 1950s, reaching the rank of Sub-Lieutenant.
Together, they provide a powerful impression of what life must have been like in late-Seventies Britain for a retired trader in wet fish, seeing his country overrun by lesbians, lefties and other losers. His heroes were few, but those who were, to Root's mind, "sound" - principally Mrs Thatcher, the Dowager Lady Birdwood and James Anderton, "God's Cop", the self-appointed guardian of Greater Manchester's morals.
He later remembered that "sex, whether in company or not, has been the only department in life in which I have demanded from anyone taking part the very highest standards of seriousness. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. You Cannot Live As I Have Lived and Not End Up Like This: The thoroughly disgraceful life and times of Willie Donaldson. Donaldson's ghastly creation wrote outrageous, threatening, scurrilous and outlandish letters to public figures, praising, insulting or attempting to bribe them.
In short, he was the British version of Sarah Palin – but people apparently took him seriously (with the exception of Cambridge). If further recommendation be needed, then surely there is none finer than Glenda Slagg/Linda Lee Potter: "About as funny as pushing somebody fully clothed into a swimming pool. Liz Reed - another character created by William Donaldson, Reed's TV production pitches - for shows such as 'Disabled Gladiators' and 'Anglotrash' - in the guise of Heart Felt Productions were collected in the 1998 book, The Heart Felt Letters.You Cannot Live As I Have Lived and Not End Up Like This: The thoroughly disgraceful life and times of Willie Donaldson, Terence Blacker, Ebury Press, 2007, pp.
It is very non PC and there is a wave of guilt that I should find it amusing, but nevertheless it is a good read.Published in 1980, what would Henry Root of the wet fish emporium make of the A to Z listers of today. Or saying that Henry Root Junior thought Cliff Richard was working behind the makeup counter at Boots makes me think, but for "Congratulations" go he.