When my father, Giuseppe Alessi, who has died aged 82, arrived in Accrington, Lancashire, from Sicily in 1961, he had already been in tailoring since the age of 10, making his own suits by the age of 18.
As with many people from southern Italy and Sicily, postwar poverty played a large part in the decision to emigrate. Born one of six children to Giuseppe Sr and Calogera Maria (nee Falcone) in Racalmuto, out of economic necessity he had left school early to take up an apprenticeship, arranged by his father, with a local tailor. Many people in Racalmuto had left for Accrington, and so eventually, in his late 20s, he headed there.
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