The First Little Bastard to Call Me Gramps: Poems of the Late Middle Ages

Bill Richardson, winner of the Stephen Leacock medal for humour and former CBC Radio personality, delivers a “fresh and frisky” poetic take on transitioning into life as a retiree and living through the golden years.

In their frank and witty delivery, Richardson’s illustrated retirement rhymes for the hoary-headed do not just playfully reveal the inevitable weakening that afflicts the mind and body as the years wear on, they also cast light on the ageless, exuberant spirit that too often remains hidden inside. From retirement homes, cruises, and grandchildren to liver spots, memory problems, and geriatric sex, Richardson’s candid reflections on the trials, tribulations, and humiliations of growing old are funny, sharp, and irreverent.

Illustrated by award-winning artist Roxanna Bikadoroff, The First Little Bastard to Call Me Gramps is an essential companion to the graces, and disgraces, of ageing.

BILL RICHARDSON, winner of Canada’s Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour, and former radio host, has written several highly acclaimed books for children. They include The Aunts Come Marching, illustrated by Cynthia Nugent, winner of the Time to Read Award; After Hamelin, winner of the Ontario Library Association’s Silver Birch Award; and The Alphabet Thief, illustrated by Roxanna Bikadoroff, named among New York Library's Best Books for Kids. Bill lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.

ROXANNA BIKADOROFF’s illustrations have been published internationally for more than twenty-five years. She has won numerous awards, many of them National Magazine Awards, including Best Illustration (Gold). She recently collaborated with Bill Richardson on a collection of poems for adults as well as on her first children’s book, The Alphabet Thief. Roxanna lives in Vancouver.