UNUSUAL BOOK

Hokitika Guardian, 22 February 1933, Page 2

UNUSUAL BOOK

AUTHOR IS A NEWSVENDOR

REMARKABLE SUCCESS,

A former pavement artist, who last year wrote a book which is now selling in thousands, is still—selling newspapers. He is Mr John A. Bently, formerly of Manchester, and now of Knightsbridge, who despite the sudden change in his fortunes, is earning his living as a newspaper seller in order to gather material for an other book.

Years ago, when he lost his job as a clerk jn Manchester, he tramped to London in a .vain search for work. For six years! he lived from hand to mouth, eating when he could pick up odd jobs and starving when he couldn’t. But his life was crammed with strange adventures, and one day lie set to work to write them. “Nobody in England would look at the book,” he said in a recent interview. “It lay on my pitch at the embankment until a German publisher noticed it and took it to Germany to publish. It was published there in German and in English, and was .an instance success. The first 10,000 sold in a few weeks, while to-day the sales have reached 110,000. It is being translated into four different languages. The book, which was called “No Hands Wanted,” describes the adventures of an unemploved man. Mr Bentley, who recently returned from a holiday abroad, smiled when asked why he continued selling newspapers. “A newspaper seller sees more of life than many people earning thousands a year,” .lie said.