A Century of Life

Description

Charles Stokes has personally witnessed many of the huge technological and social changes of the past 100 years. He saw a zeppelin that dropped bombs on his home town during World War I; his family worked on steam engines, then the favoured method of power; he serviced fighters during the Battle of Britain and had tea with a German family as World War II ended; he helped thousands revolutionise their cooking and lighting with bottled gas; he bought his first laptop at the age of 99. Yet his life has also been underpinned by values that have not changed: his devotion to one woman for 70 years; his belief in planning in advance, saving before spending, the beauty of a garden and the virtue of clean shoes. He is not unique in reaching an advanced age, but he is unusual in his ability to still remember, in detail, events and people stretching back over a century of life. This is his story, told in his own words.