A Haringey author’s new book celebrates his rural childhood through the items rescued from his family home

John Eccleston (left) and his book Garlick (right)

When John Eccleston’s dad went into care, his childhood home in the Lancashire countryside, Garlick House, was cleared.

The contents were shabby; most of them seemed destined for charity shops or the tip. But John, for whom change had come too suddenly, decided to save as much as possible, as if his childhood itself would be lost if he did not. He brought a vanload of things down to his already crowded studio flat in London.

Years have passed. John still looks after most of the old treasures that he rescued, though his wife and son aren’t especially interested in them. What do these old things mean to him now? Can he recapture his childhood through the stories of these familiar objects? And even if he can, are the things themselves, in the end, just clutter?

In this book, written as a guide to his possessions, for the benefit of his teenage son (who will inherit them one day), John examines a hundred and one old things. Piece by piece, he recreates a rural childhood.

John Eccleston grew up in rural Lancashire, in a decrepit house surrounded by beautiful gardens. He moved south, to study at the London School of Economics.

After graduating he proved unsuitable for regular professional employment, and worked instead as a bicycle messenger, and also, occasionally, as a photographer. He lives in North London. Garlick is John’s first book published by Troubador Publishing.

John explains: “In the lockdown, reflecting upon my cluttered house, it struck me how much stuff I had that had belonged to my parents.

“I wondered what it would all mean to my son when it was his turn to inherit. I’d saved a lot, to thereby save my childhood; but it wasn’t the things themselves, really, that mattered, was it? It was the memories that were important in the end.

“The book should appeal to anyone who has had to sort out a deceased relative’s possessions; or who knows that, before too long, that task will fall to them.

“Since completing the book I have been diagnosed with NETS [neuroendocrine tumors] cancer, so the questions the book asks, about how we value possessions, have become even more pointed for me.”

Further information on Garlick is available from Troubador:
Visit troubador.co.uk/bookshop/autobiography/garlick

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