Bob is an inspiration to would-be authors

Interview and photo by Marilyn Barber | newseditor@dorsetview.co.uk

A normal weekday for Bob Hewitt has involved him writing from 10am to 12 noon, and then again from 2pm to around 4-4.30pm.

And then this 91-year-old allows himself the weekend off to enjoy watching football.

Bob, who has written three books and is planning a fourth, is an inspiration to anyone who, having reached their tenth decade, feels their useful life is over.

When I went to see him at his home in Broadstone on 6 February, Bob told me I had arrived on a poignant anniversary.

He opened his second book ‘Football, a Family Affair’ – which is a Cherries supporter’s story of dreams, memories and reality – and pointed to a paragraph which detailed the Munich Air Disaster of 6 February 1958 in which players named as the ‘Busby Babes’ lost their lives with Matt Busby sustaining serious injuries.

Bob had started his working life as a tea boy at a small firm of building contractors, in Broadstone – his third book, which is at the printer’s, is called ‘Just a Tea Boy’. However, his career was to flourish and jobs included chief clerk of works at the then Dorset County Council, finishing as clerk of works at Weymouth and Portland Sailing Academy.

In 2005, Bob wrote a comprehensive booklet on the academy, but it wasn’t until after his wife Kath died on 2 December 2014 that he took to writing in real earnest.

And his inspiration was very poignant.

“I was at a function in London a year after my wife died, when the woman sitting next to me asked why I had two rings on my finger. I explained that when I lost my wedding ring, I bought another one. Subsequently, I was gardening when I discovered my first ring on a rose bush, so I decided to wear them both. The rose bush was called Valentine’s Heart.

“When she heard this, the woman said that I had a story to tell, and this inspired me to write the first book ‘Precious Moments’ which was published in 2018.”

Bob, who doesn’t use a computer, writes in longhand, and this is then typed up by his friend Sonja Sparrow. Bob is waiting for a cataract operation, which hasn’t made the job very easy of late, but he remains pragmatic and cheerful and says he is already formulating plans for his fourth book which will be about his war years.

“Sometimes I get ideas in the night and then get up to write notes,” he said.

In addition to the books, Bob has also written ‘Life’s Reward’, a treasury of prose and verse, which he dedicated to his wife Kath and their children, Andrew, Susan, Lynn and Neil and their families, plus his friends Bill and Sonja Sparrow.

“Writing helped me cope with the loss of my wife,” he said.

When his latest book ‘Just a Tea Boy’ comes out – and he hopes it will be published by 6 May, his 92nd birthday – he is planning to give a talk on it at Broadstone library. Any readers who would like a copy of one of Bob’s books can contact him via sonja.sparrow@uwclub.net.