The Necessary Aptitude: A Memoir [Hardcover]

This book was one of the most enjoyable I have read in many a moon.

It traces her life and career starting from the post-war growing up as the youngest of six children in a council cottage in the Vale of White Horse, Berkshire. From there it moves on to schooling and subsequent joining the Women's Royal Air Force and her posting to Singapore and Germany, where she blossomed. Her description of watching a camelion changing colour is magical.

From there it moves on to her subsequent jobs and the events that led up to her winning the tacky "Opportunity Knocks" talent show, with its slimy host Hughie Green and the dreaded "clap-o-meter" measuring device, so stops around 1975.

The title refers to the number she was knocked down during her life and told she "did not have the necessary aptitude" to succeed. The story is told with much humour, as you might expect, and is very touching in parts.

Call me an old softie, but I thought the book was brilliant.

Where to start...my dentist had died; an embarrassing number of years ago - I had meant to find a new one but it was always low down on my `to-do' list...now I was suffering from a grumbling tooth; it was a Friday afternoon and I faced the prospect of full blown toothache over the weekend when no help would be available. I managed to get an emergency appointment at a local dentist and sat in the waiting room castigating myself for being so stupid and fully expecting a stern faced dentists criticism and the word 'dentures' to be bandied about freely... Pam's poem 'Oh I wish I'd looked after me teeth' rolling round in my mind as the dental nurse led me up the stairs like a condemned man. All the dentist I had known were blokes and I was wrong footed when a young, female dentist introduced herself... suppressing laughter at my manic apologising for letting my teeth fall into such a state.

The next day, after buying an electric tooth brush and expensive toothpaste, I was browsing in a local bookshop when Pam's memoir 'The Necessary Aptitude' caught my eye. I'm not a great reader of memoirs, but this seemed an odd coincidence, so I bought a copy and read it cover to cover over the weekend.

This is a lovely book, with a nice mix of humour and poignancy, honestly told. You will find yourself reading it in Pam's distinctive accent [I can't be the only one who does this] and having lots of `I remember that' moments. I particularly liked the memories of the folk club scene in the 70's... Bob Dylan's 'To Ramona' [sigh], Fred Wedlock [we bought his songs on vinyl at the exit and sang them on beery jaunts around the local pubs] and the laid back attitude in the clubs where anyone could get up and perform - the good, the bad and the ugly...I remember a guitar playing friend eventually picking up courage to play; he chose Joni Michel's 'Big Yellow Taxi' to perform - already fast paced , he sang it twice as fast again out of nervousness and finished by imitating the manic laughter from the original song, guitar strings incandescent from furious strumming.....there was a stunned silence and then a roar of laughter and clapping - happy days.

As an aside, I wonder where the `Guernsey' sweater came from [rear cover]...not Wantage market I'll bet.

Absolutely fascinating! You have seen Pam Ayres over 30 years on TV now and it was time to get to know her a bit more and find out about her upbringing in the post war England, her careers and her social life. Beautifully written and highly entertaining.