Born on the Edge of White Water

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Born on the Edge of White Water is an autobiographical account by Leonard V. Stocker, published in 2004 by Pen Press Publishers, a vanity press imprint based in Brighton, UK.

It tells of 'Vincent' Stocker's childhood in the 1950's as the son of a lighthouse keeper off the coast of Ireland. The author describes his hard childhood growing up at lighthouses with his father, Lenny Stocker, a member of the Irish Lights service up to his retirement in 1958.

Living at a lighthouse set Vincent and his siblings apart from other children. Corporal punishment was severe and frequent at school and at home. The inevitability of transfer to another station, but never being sure when this would come, meant that the family was never part of the local community. Vincent lived at Blackhead lighthouse in County Antrim, Castletownbere, Minehead, Greenore, and Minehead again. His father's final station was Arranmore; the family lived in a rented house in Burtonport but Vincent joined his father at the lighthouse during the holidays. And it was there, on Aranmore Island, that Vincent's first romance took place.

After 1958, the family moved to Dublin, where Vincent found it hard to settle. He had wanted to follow his father's footsteps as a lightkeeper, but his father opposed this in the belief that automation was a rapidly approaching inevitability.

Vincent worked in a series of dead-end jobs in Dublin and then ran away to England, arriving eventually in London where he was known as Len. His adventures in 1960s London read more like a novel than a memoir. The book ends with him returning to Dublin five years later to be reconciled with his family.

The book is only available in a single paperback edition.