NEW BOOTS

5. For several years before she was married, Mum had =worked as a seamstress

7. "All you need now, Jack, is a new pair of shoes," Dad said while trying to coax a shine from my old ones. "On Saturday we'll go to the High Street - is "the High Street" colloquial? and see what we can find."

10. Every pair of shoes I had ever owned had had their soles and heels protected by Blake's, which were steel studs and plates. Dad would put the shoes on his metal last - never heard of a metal last - but there are many things I've never heard of and nail horseshoe-shaped metal to the heels and flat plates to the toe of the soles, adding four rows of round studs. These would be replaced as needed, ensuring that although the uppers would ultimately wear out, the bottoms would remain as good as new.