Geoffrey Windham

The Hightown Boy Geoffrey Windham

This book charts my life as a provincial Jewish boy, from my birth in 1948 in Hightown, Manchester and an orthodox Jewish upbringing. I trace my Jewish ancestry on my mother's side from The Pale of Russia in the 1890s, and on my father's side, his escape from a concentration camp in Nazi Germany in 1939 and the murder of his family in Auschwitz. In the 1950s my family settled in Southport, a Lancashire seaside resort near Liverpool. I left grammar school early to work in my Dad's kosher butcher shop, the centre of the Jewish community and I married my childhood sweetheart in 1970. In the 1980s, I transformed my life by moving to California and experimenting with New Age philosophies, a psychic channel and drugs. The book highlights my love of music, both secular and religious, and my ongoing journey of creative song writing and performing. It shows my religious evolution from traditional Judaism to a personal belief in God and my own spiritual philosophy.