Oswestry man publishes autobiography
From having a knife pressed against his throat to teaching young piano students in the Shropshire countryside, Geoffrey Smales has led an interesting life.
And the 85-year-old from Oswestry has now decided to put his story down on electronic paper.
Mr Smales' book, Road Ahead Closed, has been released as an ebook for Kindle.
He said: "It's called Road Ahead Closed because my road ahead has been closed so often, such as being seriously ill when I was a boy and having my educational road closed.
"I felt I'd had a lot of problems and managed to get through them and thought it might be an encouragement to others. Because of ill health, I wasn't expected to reach the age of 20, but I did, and here I am in my 80s.
"It's taken about three years to write, but that was around other projects and things that came up. I've been busy with other things because we give piano recitals and composing music and other things going on, and operations, and my wife had cancer."
One of the stories Mr Smales tells in his book is of a particularly eventful year in the 1960s when he was excommunicated from his church after the minister took offence to a sermon which he had given, but then only a few weeks later was offered a job as pastor of two other churches.
• Road Ahead Closed is available as an ebook from Amazon priced £3.60.
