Don't Let My Past Be Your Future: A Call to Arms

This is a heartfelt, important work which stands both as a fine memoir and a warning to those who have not experienced first-hand the dark and difficult times that shaped the life of author. Harry Leslie Smith is deeply articulate, his words are moving and powerful, and his voice is authentic and sincere. Everyone under 95 should take heed! (Joanne Harris)

This is a wonderful book and a timely reminder that so much of the progress we take for granted came not from the benevolence of the great and good, but from the collective struggles of previous generations of working people. At a time when the need for decent jobs, homes, rights and services is more pressing than ever, Don't Let My Past Be Your Future is a must read for trade unionists, campaigners and everyone on the left. (Frances O’Grady, General Secretary, Trades Union Congress)

History, they say, is written by the winners. Harry is a winner. He defied the odds and poor health to beat poverty and inequality to live a long and full life. He has been a tremendous public servant to this country, and his relentless spirit spills from these pages ensuring his service to us all will survive to benefit future generations . . . Don't dismiss these as the dreams of an old man. Harry is our own 'a living bridge' to history. Read this book, cross this bridge. Take a long, good look at what you see on the other side. We must do better than be destined to repeat our history as tragedy. (Len McCluskey, General Secretary, Unite)

I dipped into the book and then I kept on reading - it's a beautiful, wise and righteous piece of work and truly generous to the coming generation (A.L. Kennedy)

Told with passion and eloquence, Mr Smith's personal story of growing up in a time without social services is a stark reminder of how close we may be (in the UK and the US) to consigning millions of people to a life of abject misery for no other reason than they were born poor. (Gale Anne Hurd, producer of The Walking Dead)

This is a powerful and deeply moving personal memoir of a Dickensian-like childhood shaped by hunger, suffering and family despair in pre-war Britain. As today's world drifts back towards the extreme inequality that marked Harry Leslie Smith's childhood, we would be crazy to ignore his stirring call-to-arms in defence of the welfare state. (Linda McQuaig)

With eloquence, passion and insight that can only come from lived experience, Harry Leslie Smith once again holds up a mirror to contemporary Britain and the hazardous path it is currently on.
By reminding us so vividly of the recent past and shining a light on present perils this book is an urgent warning flare against a gathering storm of far-right ideology and the collective scourges of austerity, inequality and Brexit. Most importantly of all though, it exhorts us to do something now or pay the price for complacency in the face of such threats. Please read - and give it to those you care about to read

(Mary O'Hara)

Through reading Harry's words, I feel as if I am walking the bridge between his generation and my own. His experiences as a child in the Great Depression highlight the dangerous times we now live in - in which the destruction of the NHS and welfare state risk dragging us back to a Britain of the 1930s. Harry's work to defend and champion our public services is something I am endlessly grateful for. He is an inspiration (Emily Berrington)

Harry has lived through the Great Depression, World War 2, and has borne witness to many of our world's greatest economic, social and cultural conflicts. He's an ordinary man, who has lived through extraordinary times, and brings his experiences of life forward with breath-taking lucidity and ability. His words are not a reflection on history, but a warning that history may be about to repeat itself. A brilliant book, by a brilliant man (Professor Vikas S. Shah, FRSA)

If you truly want to comprehend the dangerous place in which we find ourselves today, social, economic and political and how we came to be in this mess, look no further then Harry Leslie Smiths extraordinary new book Don't Let My Past Be Your Future. Never have the words of this great man been of more relevance, not just to you and I but to our children and our children's children. At times Harry's book will make you angry; it will make you cry; but ultimately it will fill you with the desire to rise up against injustice and what a testament that is to the words of this incredible man (Peter Stefanovic, lawyer, blogger)