UNEMPLOYED MAN’S BOOK

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 108, 10 May 1933, Page 6

UNEMPLOYED MAN’S BOOK

REMARKABLE SUCCESS. AUTHOR SELLING NEWSPAPERS. 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. Bentley, 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 another book. Years ago, when he lost his job as a clerk in 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 he set to work to write them. “Nobody in England

would look at the book,” he said in a recent interview. “Lt 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 Instant success. The first 10,000 sold in a few weeks, while to-day the sales have reached <30,000. It is being translated into four different languages. The book, which was called “No Hands Wanted,” describes the adventures of an unemployed 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 rear,” he said.