Jerry Turner, author of Downside Road

A WESTON man who was reunited with his family after decades apart has used the experience to write a book featuring the town.

Jerry Turner has written Downside Road, a book based on the real stories of Weston residents.

He was inspired to write it after meeting up with his estranged family and his genetic mother, decades after being adopted.

He then got in touch with social services in Weston, looking through files for research into the lives of real residents.

Jerry said: “I used that as a platform to bounce off and what I came up with was probably about 20 per cent true.

“It is about the daily struggles of life when you are short of money, inspired by my motivation to unravel the past a little bit.”

Jerry started life in Uphill, before moving to Sand Bay, then the Oldmixon, before finally moving to the Bournville estate – in Downside Road.

The novel sees a soldier, invalided from the army, return home, where he flits from one menial job to another before he falls for a shop assistant but struggles to put his past behind him.

Jerry added: “It shows a man with a handicap can fail, through very little fault of his own.”

The book, priced £14.95, is available in paperback via Amazon.co.uk or in e-book version through Kindle.