There’S Always Risk in Movement

Book excerpt: Travel back to a time when David Bowie, Rod Stewart, and Sting ruled the Reading Festival and when lazing by the Thames was the perfect way to spend a sunny afternoon. Sit a while, and recall the many sights and sounds of the place where Oscar Wilde once wrote his fabled Ballad of Reading Gaol. The band XTC once posited that life is always better lived with senses working overtime. In Theres Always Risk in Movement: Tales from Old Reading Town, author Alan Croft aims to put this theory to the test as he peels back the layers of his life and dives headfirst into the heart of 1970s and 1980s Berkshire. Tag along with a group of youths in Reading as they engage in a seemingly never-ending pursuit of hedonistic delights. Most of all, feel the weight of the world slip from Crofts shoulders as he leaves behind a life of sectarian violence and eases into a tranquil English lifestyle. And join these close-knit group of youngsters as they stumble their way toward adulthood, always taking the time to share every little laugh, fear, and secret heartache as they make their way along that rocky road together.