GROWING UP IN THE 1950S, 60s and 70s in that enigmatic, wondrous hive of industrial activity in the West Midlands, Andrew Edwards was a reporter for The County Express newspaper based in Stourbridge and Brierley Hill.

It was his first job as a teenager, given a chance by proprietor Lt. Col Moody of the Mark and Moody hierarchy, it propelled Andrew to a lifelong journalist career.

In this, his second book, he tells of his roots, born in a wobbly house in Amblecote, and his job in provincial journalism, which took him all over the Black Country. This was a time before computers or mobile phones, when any form of desktop digital publishing was far in the future. Printing presses were mechanical things bigger than double decker buses and stories were set in hot metal!

These are his reminiscences, meeting Black Country characters like mayors, aldermen, golden wedding couples, pub landlords, criminals and even an emerging rock star.

Andrew researches his own family - from his parents love of cycling and sport and his father's lifetime passion with local Black Country athletic clubs of which he was a founder member, to glass makers, when the area produced the best handmade blown glass products in the world. We also meet his aunty, an assistant matron, steelmaking, book printing, a founder member of the Royal Flying Corps in the First World War, and an army Captain in the Second; his godfather sunk in the South China sea, canal boatman, a TV and radio comedy gag (joke) writer, with gritty labourers, nailers and puddlers, going back to 1727.

Plus there's a mysterious family-owned book about agriculture, written in London just after the Great Fire of London, in 1666.

This book is an eclectic mix of Black Country stories and tales, told in a humorous style by the author.

Andrew Edwards' first book MCN Days Speedway Nights is available from Amazon and all good bookshops.