ORDERS

Readings Orders 0

DEMANDS

Readings Demands 0

This Boy: a Memoir Of a Childhood
[Paperback - 2014]
On Demand
Availability in 2-4 weeks on receipt of order
List Price: £12.99
Our Price: Rs.2495 Rs.2121
Standard Discount: 15%
You Save: Rs.374
Sub-category: Memoirs
Publisher: Corgi Uk | ISBN: 9780552167017 | Pages: 0
Shipping Weight: 0 | Dimensions: 0

The extraordinary 1950s London childhood of one of Britain's best-loved politicians. 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."

Alan Arthur Johnson (born 17 May 1950) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for the Home Department from 2009 to 2010 and Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2010 to 2011. A member of the Labour Party, Johnson served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hull West and Hessle from 1997 to 2017.

Bestsellers in Bio & Autobiography

View All