William R Armstrong

A Life in Perspective: Reflection on a Life and Purpose William R Armstrong

This book looks in detail at aspects of my life, my forebears and the economic and social backdrop that shaped both their lives and mine. It goes on to reflect upon experience and knowledge gained to provide a perspective on life in general.




A Life in Perspective begins with the environment into which I was born, a family rooted in industrial working-class northern England and lowland Scotland. It explores a landscape shaped by the Industrial Revolution and the cotton and coal mining industries. The 1960s brought opportunity and relative prosperity for many of working-class origin and it appeared that the UK was becoming both a meritocracy and egalitarian. That resulted in my political engagement and a return to full-time education. Those years also brought the angst of adolescence with its crises of confidence and torment in relation to the opposite sex.




The book goes on to chronicle my 34 years with the company Spicers, providing a perspective on the company's origins, as a manufacturer of paper, and its development to become a European-wide wholesaler of office products. That business founded in 1796 no longer exists, its death partly the result of the financial engineering that came to the fore in a post-industrial Britain.




My search for 'meaning' has been a recurring need. The final part of the book is a reflection on my experience and an attempt to marry that with philosophies and beliefs arrived at throughout history. It questions the idea of progress and examines the nature of power and importance of social cohesion. Finally it considers the fundamental question as to whether life has a purpose. In as much as the book may correspond with your experience, or encourage you to consider your life, then it will have value beyond that which I have obtained in writing it.
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