"Memories of old Coventry pubs shared in new book"

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"Memories of old Coventry pubs shared in new book"

Postby dutchman » Thu Jul 29, 2021 3:54 pm

Chris Arnot's new book reflects on pubs of Coventry past

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Ever wondered what going to the pub in Coventry used to be like?

With a lot of pubs our grandparents or parents used to go to now being closed, it’s hard to recapture those memories.

Thankfully, retired assistant editor for Coventry Telegraph turned non-fiction author Chris Arnot has put together a book reflecting on his ‘pubscrawling’ past.

As far as credentials go for putting together his book 'Closing Time: Lockdown reflections on a 'Pubscrawling' past', Chris used to produce a column called ‘Pubscrawl’ which featured characters from both sides of the bar, as well as legendary licensees from Mavis Ogden at the OId Dyer’s Arms in Spon End to Wal Haydon at the Earlsdon Cottage.

Chris told CoventryLive: “I used to visit the General Wolfe on Foleshill Road and they would host the likes of The Specials, U2 and Eurythmics.

“Unfortunately, the General Wolfe closed around 10 years ago now.”

Chris came to Coventry from Nottingham in 1981 and jokes in ‘Closing Time’ how he ordered a cheese cob in the Town Wall Tavern, to which a barmaid responded, ‘what’s a cob?’

He said: “On my first day in the city it was branded as a ghost town and it took me a long time to get used to it.”

In his book he writes: “It seemed very different back in the early eighties. What had once been a great manufacturing centre had been labelled a “ghost town”.

"By The Specials, needless to say, the most successful band on the 2-Tone label that had been spawned in the city in the late seventies. Ghost Town was number one in the charts on the week that I started at the Telegraph.”

As Chris explains in the book, he and his family struggled at first to settle in, but writing his column really helped him begin to love the city.

“I was in my early thirties with a wife and three small children. It took a while to get the family settled in Coventry, but I remain grateful to get back into newspapers – not only running a department on a decent salary but writing two regular columns.”

This is his 13th book, and he has been published by the AA, the BBC and Aurum.

‘Closing Time’ was written during the third lockdown.

Chris Arnot will be talking about ‘Closing Time’ at a launch in the function room of the Royal Oak on Earlsdon Street on Wednesday (July 28) at 5.30.pm

It will also be on sale at various shops on the high street as well as Kenilworth Books and the Coventry branch of Waterstone’s.

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