A Mansfield man used the covid lockdowns to write his first books — after his son gave him a laptop to watch Mansfield Town FC matches.

Chris Walker has put his life history into words and hopes the first book, Letter to my Grandchildren, will bring back memories of some of the changes people may have forgotten. It is about his first 20 years, his time growing up in the 1950s, 60s and 70s.

“I was recovering from a serious illness and was in e-mail communication with two distant relations,” said Chris.

“All we were doing was exchanging stories, so I thought I would write and print a book for my grandchildren to read later in their lives. It is about my experiences of growing up. I think the book is social history because it shows the changes that have happened since the 1960s.”

Chris spent his early years in Blidworth Bottoms with his great- grandmother, before his parents moved to Warsop Lane, Rainworth.

His first school was Python Hill Infants in the village and he remembers watching the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II on a then rare television at a friend’s house.

Chris said: “The area where I lived was surrounded by coal mines, which have now all disappeared.”

An engineer who later went into the photographic industry, Chris retired aged 55 before doing part-time work until he was 68, when he developed a serious illness that is the subject for his second book, Falling off the Cliff.

Letter to my Grandchildren, which Chris has dedicated to his wife, Sandra, two children, and two grandchildren, is for sale at Amazon.co.uk