So They Call You Pisher!: A Memoir

In this hilarious, moving memoir, much-loved children’s poet and political campaigner Michael Rosen recalls the first twenty-three years of his life. He was born in the North London suburbs, and his parents, Harold and Connie, both teachers, first met as teenage Communists in the Jewish East End of the 1930s. The family home was filled with stories of relatives in London, the United States and France and of those who had disappeared in Europe.

Different from other children, Rosen and his brother, Brian, grew up dreaming of a socialist revolution. Party meetings were held in the front room. Summers were for communist camping holidays. But it all changed after a trip to East Germany when, in 1957, his parents decided to leave ‘the Party’.

From that point, Michael followed his own journey of radical self-discovery: running away to Aldermaston to march against the bomb; writing and performing in experimental political theatre at Oxford; getting arrested during the 1968 movements. The book ends with a letter to his father, and the revelation of a heartbreaking family secret.

Michael Rosen is the author of over 140 books of poetry, stories and cultural politics. He was the UK’s Children’s Laureate 2007–9 and is currently Professor of Children’s Literature at Goldsmiths, University of London, where he co-devised and co-tutors the MA in Children’s Literature. He has won numerous international awards for his work. His most famous books are We’re Going on a Bear Hunt (with Helen Oxenbury); Quick, Let’s Get Out of Here; and Michael Rosen’s Sad Book (both with Quentin Blake). He presents BBC Radio 4’s flagship programme about language, Word of Mouth, and writes a monthly provocative open letter to the Secretary of State for Education in the Guardian.