This Boy: A Memoir of a Childhood - Hardcover

Johnson, Alan

4.21

3,535 ratings by Goodreads

9780593069646: This Boy: A Memoir of a Childhood

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0593069641 ISBN 13: 9780593069646

Publisher: Bantam Press, 2013

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Alan Johnson's childhood was not so much difficult as unusual, particularly for a man who was destined to become Home Secretary. Not in respect of the poverty, which was shared with many of those living in the slums of post-war Britain, but in its transition from two-parent family to single mother and then to no parents at all.

This is essentially the story of two incredible women: Alan's mother, Lily, who battled against poor health, poverty, domestic violence and loneliness to try to ensure a better life for her children; and his sister, Linda, who had to assume an enormous amount of responsibility at a very young age and who fought to keep the family together and out of care when she herself was still only a child. Played out against the background of a vanishing community living in condemned housing, the story moves from post-war austerity in pre-gentrified Notting Hill, through the race riots, school on the Kings Road, Chelsea in the Swinging 60s, to the rock-and-roll years, making a record in Denmark Street and becoming a husband and father whilst still in his teens.

This Boy is one man's story, but it is also a story of England and the West London slums which are so hard to imagine in the capital today. No matter how harsh the details, Alan Johnson writes with a spirit of generous acceptance, of humour and openness which makes his book anything but a grim catalogue of miseries.

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About the Author:

ALAN JOHNSON was born in May 1950. He is a British Labour Party politician who served as Home Secretary from June 2009 to May 2010. Before that, he filled a wide variety of cabinet positions in both the Blair and Brown governments, including Health Secretary and Education Secretary. Until January 20, 2011 he was Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer. Johnson has been the Member of Parliament for Hull West and Hessle since 1997.

Review:

"the best memoir by a politician you will ever read" -- Philip Collins The Times "a poignant memoir...Johnson writes wonderfully" -- Mary Kenny Telegraph "deeply moving and unforgettable" -- Lynn Barber Sunday Times "a handsome and eloquent tribute" -- Peter Wilby Guardian "beautifully, beautifully written... his style is utterly simple, with a wit so understated that every reader will believe that he or she alone got it" -- John Rentoul Independent on Sunday "Neither mawkish nor sentimental, it is an evocative, filmic account on an early childhood... would make a fabulous drama that, for all its squalor, lifts the spirits" -- Judith Woods Daily Telegraph "a testament to the power of family love and a tribute to two strong women" -- Ian Birrell Daily Mail "Wonderful and moving... unreadable with a dry eye" The Times "the biography of a politician like no other - beautifully observed, humorous, moving, uplifting; told with a dry self-deprecating wit and not a trace of self-pity" -- Chris Mullin Observer "No ordinary politician's memoir ... wonderful." -- John Grimond The Spectator

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