Tom Kipper, not a red herring! (Tom Kipper's Schooldays: Memories of an Irish Childhood in Liverpool - Peter Sale)

Member Name: kaitlinsmummy

Product:	Tom Kipper's Schooldays: Memories of an Irish Childhood in Liverpool - Peter Sale
Date:	29/04/08 (117 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Written from the perspective of a child.

Disadvantages: None!

Every now and then Asda has a terrific sale on new books, cd's and dvd's, all the books on sale are available for the princely sum of £1.00.
So of course when these sales come around I try to purchase a couple of books that I maybe wouldn't have read before, this is how I ended reading this little gem!

The book I will now review is "Tom Kipper's schooldays - memories of an Irish childhood in Liverpool".

The book is a semi biographical story of the authors (Peter Sale), childhood.

Tom Kipper is a mischievous ten year, born into a charming Irish family living in Liverpool, all good Catholics and all as poor as church mice.

The book begins with the explanation of the term "scouser", in the book it is claimed that "scouse" was a dish invented by the new groups of Liverpool Irish, that had settled in Liverpool after the potato blight in the mid nineteenth century, hence earning them the nickname of "Scousers".
Whole areas were inhabited by the L.I's, giving them a whole new sense of community.

The book is set in the years leading up to 1939, Tom is part of a typical Liverpool Irish family, his mother is hardworking, trying to scrape together enough money to live but only managing to pull in enough to dine on mashed potato's every day.
Tom's father is unemployed, which compared to a lot of Tom's friends parents is reasonably typical, the difference being, that Tom's father refuses to work, refusing to conform to the ideals, which of course really antagonises Tom's mother!

Tom's extended family are all a delight to read about, none are criminals in the traditional sense of the word, there is never violence or intimidation involved, but rather elaborate ways of "getting their hand's on", a few crates of fresh fish or a couple of cases of stout, all of which are shared between the family and also the church, so of course giving back to god cancels out the deed!

Tom is a pupil at Saint Joseph's Academy (of hard knocks), along with his closest buddies he spends his day's avoiding the multitude of "scraps" that happen on the playground after school.

The teachers that are in the story are wonderfully colourful characters especially "spider lady" Mcann who the kids call Genghis Khan, due to the severity of her persona.

After the break out of the war in 1939, you would expect the joviality of the book to cease, but Tom finds many more adventures, especially when he manages to capture a real life German pilot..........

This was a real surprise to me, I never really expected to enjoy this book but it was a joy to read.
The way the book is written, the funny little anecdotes of life back then and the genuinely heart warming moments that happened after the war started makes this a highly recommended book to read.

For more information on this and other titles visit - www.headlline.co.uk

Thanks for reading x

Summary: A heart warming tale of times gone by.