Grasshoppers, Stonkers And Straight Eights

His latest offering Grasshoppers, Stonkers And Straight Eights - the terms are fully explained in the book - arose from his conversations with former Bristol postal worker George Henry Massey.

If Massey had been born across the pond he may well have been called George Henry III, since he was the third generation in line to bear that name.

Born in 1916, Massey's clear recollections of his parents and grandparents provide a fascinating insight into Victorian, Edwardian and Georgian working-class life.

He entered the Post Office as a boy messenger, passing the internal exam to become a sorting clerk and telegraphist and becoming active in the Union of Post Office Workers, now part of the Communication Workers Union.

Massey also joined the Communist Party and, as part of a small band of comrades, set up the Rosa Luxemburg Group, a local rank-and-file organisation designed to rejuvenate the union and transform the defeatist attitude of the staff into a militant and progressive trade union movement.

The group's 1935 minute book provides a detailed record of its activities, although Chapple is surprised to learn that these young militants were unaware then of the initial radical stance of the union when it was founded in 1920.

When the British ruling class was gearing up for a new invasion of Russia, general secretary Bill Bowen wrote an emotional appeal to members in the union journal The Post.

He backed the Council of Action that had been mobilised to oppose war, saying: "It is for you to do your share to save yourselves, your sons and brothers from being mangled by the murderous military machine.

"We believe in your loyalty; we rely on your support; and we look for an exhibition of solidarity in the UPW which shall startle the government and stimulate our fellow workers towards renewed efforts towards economic freedom."

That positive mood was crushed by defeat in the 1926 General Strike and subsequent government-imposed draconian anti-strike and anti-political regulations. Defeat was used to demobilise union resistance as was the later failure of a 47-day strike to win a £3-a-week rise in 1971.

Interestingly, Massey was always welcome on the UPW picket line in 1971, even though he had by then joined the Post Office Management Staffs Association, having been promoted to overseer.

He drifted out of the Communist Party in the 1970s but remained active in the postal and telecoms pensioners federation and is supportive of his Kingswood Labour MP Roger Berry.

Apart from Massey's detailed reminiscences, his collection of photographs, cartoons and documents offers Chapple a rich seam of industrial and political history to mine.

As such it will interest not only those with specialised knowledge of the Post Office but a far broader readership.