A KEEN historian has shared stories from his own past for his new book, Confessions of a Newsagents Son - Amblecote in the 1950s.

James Morgan has looked back at his childhood, reminisced about schoolboy scrapes and combined his memories with local history.

He said: "The book is my view of life from behind the newsagent's counter and from the saddle of my delivery bike."

Mr Morgan, who has been chairman of the Black Country Society since 2010, has also included more than 50 photographs of Amblecote and some of the characters who lived in the area at the time.

The book is available from the society 's website www.blackcountrysociety.co.uk or from Ashwood Nurseries in Kingswinford, The Black Country Museum or The Black Country Bugle Shop in Cradley Heath, priced £9.90.