Guardian review of HG Wells' Kipps, being reissued soon as a Penguin Classic1... What, didn't you know HG Wells lived in Sandgate for a while?
Orphaned at an early age, raised by his aunt and uncle, and apprenticed for seven years to a draper, Artie Kipps is stunned to discover upon reading a newspaper advertisement that he is the grandson of a wealthy gentleman and the inheritor of his fortune. Thrown dramatically into the upper classes, he struggles desperately to learn the etiquette and rules of polite society. But as he soon discovers, becoming a true gentleman is neither as easy nor as desirable as it at first appears.
This is part of my website The Folkestone Gerald that I set up in a fury of excitement when I first moved here sometime in 2004. I'd been a frequent visitor for a while previous to that but I am technically one of those DFLs you get nowadays. This site was updated more frequently with a calendar of events + voting for favourite places and things, + I know it was a useful reference for others who were moving here. Now I've moved out of Folkestone again (though only a couple of miles) it doesn't get as much love as it used to. Ironic really as Folkestone itself is now becoming the exciting place we knew it was just about to. My name is not Gerald by the way, this comes from the name of a pretend paper in an episode of The Day Today or something, the Portsmouth Gerald, + how there is a local newspaper here called the Folkestone Herald. Puns like this are great aren't they? Do contact me if you have something to offer, email anythign @ this domain, or try @folkestone or @pauly on Twitter.