SPEAKING in tongues is second nature to a Blackpool man - still learning new languages at the age of 84.

Stanley Bradley, not content with conversing in French, German, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Hungarian, Russian, Dutch, Afrikaans, Portuguese and Welsh, is now swotting Hebrew and Swedish.

A retired salesman and publisher who left school at 14, Stanley was trading in Europe long before the EC was even contemplated.

Now based in St Annes Road, he is looking for a ghost writer to help him pen his remarkable life story.

"Languages to me were an Open Sesame," he said.

"I came from a very poor background in Darwen, my father was killed in World War One and when I left school I hardly knew English never mind anything else.

"But I'd collected foreign stamps as a boy and dreamed of visiting those countries.

"I got my chance at 16 when my mother gave me £10 and I went off to Germany."

He managed to arrange "a glorious 12 months in Germany cost-free," living with the family of a wealthy privy counsellor who wanted him to teach his son English.

He then washed glasses in France, Spain and Italy, constantly learning all the way.

"I was inspired by languages because they opened doors for me," he said.

"It's my dream to see English students fluent in two or three languages, because as a French king said: 'A man who can speak two languages is worth two men'."

During the war he translated for PoWs which is how he started in Polish and Russian.

Then he joined a Manchester publishing company, writing language primers, followed by stints selling across Europe and behind the Iron Curtain.

One contract saw him selling a million door handles to Russia, another with a car-full of ladies' wigs in Italy, which he managed to off-load to an Italian hairdresser.

"At trade fairs I'd put up a sign saying all these languages were spoken and they used to flock to my stand," he said.

Stanley managed to stay in one place long enough to marry and bring up five children.

He said: I'm 84, and now I just learn languages as a hobby. But I've had an interesting life and I'd like to write my memoirs. If anyone can help I'd like to hear from them."

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