The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp

Childhood memories begin in the Church House, a public house kept by Davies's grandfather, a retired sea captain. Trips to Bristol aboard the Welsh Prince bring rough weather, family pride and affectionate recollections of a vessel whose unreliable arrivals became local gossip. Davies also recalls his grandparents taking in their three grandchildren, his schoolboy fights, football and a period of petty theft. His account mixes gratitude for a comfortable home with frank admissions about his own behaviour.

Later, a lodging-house kitchen opens onto another way of life. Men make artificial flowers and wire household goods, sort rags and bones, or prepare for a day's selling. Davies, carrying a small stock of goods, a Bible and a volume of Wordsworth, encounters unfamiliar slang and the suspicion directed at travelling grinders. These closely observed scenes give the autobiography its interest today: family history sits alongside the practical details, misunderstandings and social judgments of life on the road.