Harry Leslie Smith has 3 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 2 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.7★ across 8 ratings. The most-rated is Harry's Last Stand.
Harry's Last Stand
Summary
As one of the last remaining survivors of the Great Depression and the Second World War, I will not go gently into that good night. I want to tell you what the world looks like through my eyes, so you can help change it.... In November 2013, 91-year-old Yorkshireman, RAF veteran, and ex-carpet salesman Harry Leslie Smith’s Guardian article – "This year, I will wear a poppy for the last time" – was shared almost 60,000 times on Facebook and started a huge debate about the state of society. Now he brings his unique perspective to bear on NHS cutbacks, benefits policy, political corruption, food poverty, the cost of education – and much more. From the deprivation of 1930s Barnsley and the terror of war to the creation of our welfare state, Harry has experienced how a great civilisation can rise from the rubble. But at the end of his life, he fears how easily it is being eroded. Harry’s Last Stand is a lyrical, searing modern invective that shows what the past can teach us and how the future is ours for the taking.
©2014 Harry Leslie Smith (P)2015 Audible, Ltd
Don't Let My Past Be Your Future
Summary
Harry Leslie Smith is a great British stalwart. A survivor of the Great Depression, a Second World War veteran, a lifelong Labour supporter and a proud Yorkshire man, Harry's life has straddled two centuries. As a young man, he witnessed a country in crisis with no health care, no relief for the poor, and a huge economic gulf between the North and South. Now in his 90s, Harry wanders through the streets of his youth and wonders whether anything has actually changed. Britain is at its most dangerous juncture since Harry's youth - the NHS and social housing are in crisis, whilst Brexit and an unpopular government continue to divide the country - but there is hope. Just as Clement Attlee provided hope in 1945, Labour's triumphant comeback of June 2017 is a beacon of light in this season of discontent. Britain has overcome adversity before and will do so again - a new nation will be forged from the ashes of grave injustice. Moving and passionate, Don't Let My Past Be Your Future interweaves memoir and polemic in a call to arms. Above all, this book is a homage to the boundless grace and resilience of the human spirit.
©2017 Harry Leslie Smith (P)2017 Audible, Ltd
Love Among the Ruins
Summary
At 22, the war is over for RAF serviceman Harry Leslie Smith - author of the acclaimed Harry's Last Stand - but the battle for love and hope rages on. Stationed in occupied Hamburg, a city physically and emotionally ripped apart by Allied bombing, and determined to escape grinding poverty of his Yorkshire youth, Harry unexpectedly finds a reason to stay: a young German woman by the name of Friede. Their love develops uneasily, but gradually they win each other's trust, Harry taking on the responsibility of finding food for Friede's near-destitute family. But they must face both German suspicion and British disapproval of relations with "the enemy". Presenting a street-level view of a city reduced to rubble, populated with refugees, black marketeers, corrupt businessmen and cynical soldiers, Love Among the Ruins is a unique snapshot of a terrible period in Europe's history, a passionate love letter to a city, to a woman, and to life itself. Harry Leslie Smith's Guardian articles have been shared almost a quarter of a million times on Facebook and have attracted huge comment and debate.
©2015 Harry Leslie Smith (P)2015 Audible, Ltd