Aylesbury builder Shane Williams of WPR Renovations wrote Bricks & Dreams in his van after a Snowdon climb for Mates in Mind. Two more books are on the way.
An Aylesbury builder has written a book about the pressure of running a trade business, and the habit of putting yourself last.
Shane Williams runs WPR Renovations, which is based in the town. His first book, Bricks & Dreams, is a memoir of working life on the tools. He wrote it, he says, “around jobs, in the van and in quiet hours after work”.
The turning point came two years ago, when he climbed Snowdon with a group of builders to support Mates in Mind, the construction mental-health charity.
His wife, Jo, got in touch with us. Friends, family and customers backed the book when it came out, she said, and now the family want to reach people who do not already know Shane. He answered our questions in writing, and his answers are below at length.
Twenty years on the tools
Shane has worked in building and renovations for more than 20 years. “Aylesbury is now home and the base of WPR Renovations,” he says.
The business does:
- bathrooms
- kitchens
- plastering
- media walls
- conversions
- general home improvements
“I’m still on the tools and still dealing with the real day-to-day side of the job,” he says. “The standard behind the business is simple: No Bodge. Do the work properly, be honest with people and treat their home as you would want yours treated.”
Why he wrote it
He had wanted to write a book for years. The Snowdon climb, he says, “brought home how many people in this industry are struggling quietly”.
Shane points to figures from the charity. Mates in Mind, using Office for National Statistics figures, reports that 507 construction workers died by suicide in 2021. It also reports that low-skilled construction labourers face around four times the average suicide risk in England.
“Unless you have worked in the trade, it is hard to explain the pressure properly,” he says. “It is not only physical work. It is customers, money, mistakes, long days, responsibility, family life and the feeling that everybody else comes before you. A lot of men carry all of that without saying much.”
That feeling sits at the heart of the book. “Customers, work, their wife, children and friends all come before them, and their own time is usually pushed to the bottom of the list,” he says. “The book is an honest look at what that pressure feels like and why so many men leave themselves until last.”
He did not want it to read like a lecture.
“I wanted to use honest stories and humour, make people laugh and show tradespeople and their families what really sits behind the finished job,” he says. “Most of all, I wanted somebody who was struggling to read it and realise they were not the only ones.”
He cannot say exactly how long it took. “The book was not written in one neat block, so I could not honestly give an exact number of months,” he says. “I wrote it around jobs, in the van and in quiet hours after work, then kept returning to it until it was finished.”
Homes Aylesbury readers will recognise
The book does not name customers or addresses. “The whole book comes from real working life in and around Aylesbury and Buckinghamshire, although I have protected customers’ privacy,” he says.
“Local readers will recognise the sort of homes, jobs and pressures in it: trying to keep work moving, quoting at night, dealing with costly mistakes, earning a living and still being present for your family.
“It is not built around one named local disaster. The local connection is the everyday working life that a lot of tradespeople and their families will recognise straight away.”
Where to buy it
Bricks & Dreams is on Amazon in Kindle, paperback and hardback editions, Shane says. Its full title on Amazon, when we checked on 4 October, was Bricks & dreams: Through dust and debt to determination, one man’s story. You can find it on Amazon UK.
Two more books on the way
Shane is writing two more:
- Bricks & Dreams II: Tales from the Van carries on the story “through the funny, difficult and sometimes ridiculous moments from working life”.
- The No Bodge Handbook is “a practical book for good tradespeople who know their trade but were never taught the business side of being self-employed”.
He is keeping the orange cover of the first book. “It is where readers first met the book and it now becomes the starting point for the wider series,” he says. The artwork for the second book is still being developed ahead of publication.
What it means for you: his advice on going self-employed
We asked Shane what he would tell someone in Aylesbury thinking of working for themselves. This is his answer in full.
“Go into it with your eyes open. Being good at the trade is only half of it; suddenly you also have to understand quoting, money, customers, mistakes and when to say no.
“Do not try to win every job by being the cheapest. Price the work so you can do it properly, keep your word and be honest when something goes wrong.
“There will be stretches when you wonder why you did it, so protect your family time and learn the business side as seriously as the practical side. It is hard work, but there is real pride in building something of your own and standing behind your name.”
If you are struggling, you can call Samaritans free, day or night, on 116 123.
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