30th March, 2010

DAN WOODING

Assist News Service

The incredible life of Robert Hicks began in 1941 during a bombing raid in Birmingham, England, as Adolf Hitler tried to reduce the country's main industrial city to rubble. But it wasn't Hitler, but his parents, he says, who reduced his life to rubble.

Robert Hicks (right) with journalist Dan Wooding. "I was determined to learn to read, write and speak that I began to copy out the Bible and within a few months I improved noticeably. It took me two years to complete the task and through that, I not only learned to read and write, but I also found Jesus Christ as my personal savior."

"I was a street urchin who ran wild, unable to speak, write or read," he said. "I was ignored by my mother, who eventually deserted the family and was severely ill-treated by my father. In effect, I was a slave to the whims of my father until the age of 15."

He went on to say, "When I left school, the headmaster (principal) told me that I was 'a waste.' I got a job as an errand boy for a family grocery business and was seen by many as a shy withdrawn idiot."

Not surprisingly, Robert Hicks left school tongue-tied, dyslexic and with no confidence in speaking.

"While working in grocery shop, an ex-nurse (Mrs. Siddall) discovered the cause of my speech problem," he went on to say. "Within weeks, a simple operation took place in front of medical students at a local hospital. However, I was embarrassed because the surgeon asked me to recite the letters of the alphabet and he could not.

"After the operation, the surgeon encouraged me to take elocution lessons and also to write out a book by hand, reading the words aloud. Fanatically, I searched the house for a book. Eventually, I found an old Bible next to the dreaded army belt of my father. The Bible translation was already 360 years old - (1611 King James).

"I was determined to learn to read, write and speak that I began to copy out the Bible and within a few months I improved noticeably. It took me two years to complete the task and through that, I not only learned to read and write, but I also found Jesus Christ as my personal savior."

Robert's love for books and literature took off, when he discovered a second-hand bookshop in Cotteridge, Birmingham, called Treasure Trove. With the education as an apprentice alongside reading second-hand books on all subjects: history, astronomy, world culture, philosophy - an all-round self-education was developed.

Robert's story is both harrowing and uplifting when you consider the terrible depths from which he came and the heights to which he climbed in his adult life which included an incredible rise in retailing, he concluded as the marketing director of 110 retail shops as well as opening the first hypermarket in the UK.

Visiting a supermarket in the Wirral, Cheshire, he told British TV personality, Esther Rantzen, who was making a program about him, that this was the very site of the hyper-market that he opened 30 years ago.

"So we have to see the jump from being the errant boy who couldn't read or write, to having the confidence and someone placing the confidence in me to be responsible in opening the very first hyper-market in the United Kingdom," he told her.

Robert then spoke about his great love for books. He said although he learned to read from the Bible, he didn't just stop with the Bible, adding, "But the Bible is still to me the most important book for me."

Because of his love for books and the Bible, Robert left retailing at the height of his career - and changed direction - into publishing.

Over the past 25 years, he has developed a range of publishing companies, including some with his two sons Andrew and Peter.

Robert married Joyce in his early 20's and they had four children: Andrew, Peter, Julia and Joanna - and now has 14 grandchildren. Robert and Joyce also fostered many children in need of a home, love and confidence.

Sadly, after a long fight with cancer, Joyce passed away in her mid-40's.

At the time of Joyce's illness, Robert and Joyce looked after various cancer sufferers over an 18-month period. All of them died. Soon afterwards Robert's brother Donald also died, and a brother-in-law and sister-in-law.

Robert is happily remarried to Annabelle and had the surprise joy of another daughter, Emily-Rose who is now nine.

Beside the secular publishing companies, Robert has been involved in sponsoring and supporting Bible and Gospel initiatives throughout the world, including nearly one million full-color New Testaments going from West to Eastern Germany after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, as well as millions of Millennium Gospels being distributed by over 100,000 Christians through 10,000 churches reaching 25 per cent of all UK homes.

In all, over 100 million Bible Gospels and Bible Selections have circulated the globe.

Robert initiated quality Gospels to be used in Colleges and Universities. This venture has now grown to over 100 countries through the work of UCCF (Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship).

A particular joy for Robert and Annabelle with Emily-Rose was to visit Buckingham Palace to present a Bible for Her Majesty's Jubilee. The Bible was the same text that Robert had copied out by hand 45 years earlier, but now completely redesigned.

The big venture Robert is involved in at this moment is to develop a range of user-friendly English dictionaries, specially designed for people who suffer with dyslexia, slow learning, poor spellers and those who learn English as a second language.

Anyone looking on the Internet under 'Welcome Back to Church Sunday' will see an initiative that Robert started and is now going global. Over 20,000 churches have participated and 1,000,000 individuals revisited church. This is now an annual event and expected to grow substantially.

Another venture is "Biblefresh" which can also be seen on the internet. This venture is to celebrate the 400 years anniversary of the Bible translation which Robert copied out by hand in his mid-teens. This is the beautiful 1611 King James Bible, which many publishers will be promoting in 2011.

Another is 'A Fresh Retelling of the Bible'. The first four Gospels are now available. It is hoped over the next two to three years that the entire Bible will be completed. The 'Fresh Retelling' uses visual words in order to make the historical text come alive for today's readers - a marvelous bridge into the Bible for those who seldom read or those who have not read the Bible for a long time.

When asked how he had turned his life around from such a difficult childhood, he told Esther Rantzen, "If I could find the answer to that you and I could write up a prescription for that and give it to all these poor people who are suffering because of their childhood. There are a few pointers. This doesn't work for everybody, but it does for me. Definitely, I was attracted to Jesus. I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea that I am a balanced individual. I love people of faiths and difference denominations within the church; so I don't have a closed mind on this. But I was attracted to Jesus.

"I was damaged and I am still damaged, but it is just diluted. Jesus is the patron saint of children. That's a nice way of putting it. He made it very clear that anyone who hurts a child is in for it, both in this life and in the next life. Jesus was pro children. He said, 'Suffer the little children to come unto me for as such is the Kingdom of God.'"

Robert has been keeping us busy this by writing two autobiographical books: A Child Cries and The Miracle Book.

After taping the program, Esther Rantzen said, "During all the years I've spent making programs, I've been particularly interested in the stories of people who've had very tough childhoods; deprived childhoods, sometimes painful ones filled with abuse; and yet have managed to turn their lives around. But of all these stories, the most extraordinary, the most inspirational, was the story of Robert Hicks."

John Forrest, a TV producer of BBC fame, has produced a short video in the hope that someone will want to film the full story of Robert's amazing life. John Forrest can be contacted at producerjohn@hotmail.com.

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