In his 90th year, Michael Clark has published his first book, ’A Miscellany of Writings’ – reflections on a long life, a love of history and a passion for France. It is dedicated to his wife, Margaret, who died nearly two years ago, after nearly sixty years of marriage.

Although he has lived in Trowbridge for the past 22 years, his home for 67 years was Camerton, where generations of his family had lived since at least the beginning of the 19th century.

In his early years, he was deeply associated with the life of the church at Camerton, then the school, and, for 27 years, the Parish Council, serving as Chairman for six years. Since childhood, Michael has had a great love of music and during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, he served as organist and choirmaster at a number of churches from Camerton to Frome. In the early 1970s, together with Margaret, he formed the Camerton Choir. He also taught the piano to many young people of the village and beyond.

His entire professional life has been in the field of taxation, beginning in the Inland Revenue in the 1940s and, since the early 1970s, working as an independent accountant.

For 35 successive years, together with Margaret, he travelled extensively in France and is now in the process of producing a ‘personal commentary, journal, guide’ based on Margaret’s diaries of some of those journeys and entitled, France – A Journey.

A Miscellany of Writings is now available at Amazon and bookshops and a copy has been accepted by the Radstock Museum Library.

Michael says: “It is with no little pleasure and with some pride that, in my ninetieth year, I have published my first book.

“It was my wife’s wish and hope that my writings should be offered in the form of a book. Having submitted a manuscript to publishers, I am pleased to say that my Editor remarked that it was “very well written and interesting!”