Urchin Along

About the Book

The book is basically a lot of little anecdotes strung together and split into two parts.  "Snotty Sleeves and Raggy Trousers" charts the subject’s childhood during World War II, and "You 'orrible Little Specimen!" which is about his early adult years as an army gunner.  

The stories from childhood range from poignant to extremely funny at times as Michael Withers (Mick), the subject of the book, had to put up with the foster parents from hell but always managed to get the upper hand...eventually .  His genius in outwitting his hapless neighbours and various grown-ups, in surviving with relentless bloody-mindedness the innumerable scrapes he got into with his neighbourhood pals - both in school and out of it, and the consequent, almost regulatory beatings he had to endure at such a tender age has established him in my eyes as a bit of a hero.  With the complete lack of affection, kindness or guidance in his upbringing, the little lad had to grow up very quickly indeed and gained a "couldn't give a monkey's"  (couldn’t care less) attitude in almost no time at all, which is where the tragicomic aspect of this book lies.  This is about a boy from four years old upwards, rapidly gaining a survival instinct that deserved nothing less than sheer admiration, also giving the reader a fleeting sense of sorrow that this little lad had to harden himself up so quickly against the kind of knocks he shouldn't have even been aware of.  

His years in the army were a bit of an escape route from his dreadful home life and a view to travel abroad.  In other words, Mick wanted to get as far away from that awful family as possible, so, where other lads at the time were being conscripted into National Service, Mick actually volunteered.  Army life, however, was not the relative picnic he imagined it to be.  Firstly, he did not get posted abroad, and secondly, he ended up being the whipping boy to just about every psychotic army sergeant in his regiment.  Clichéd maybe, but all true nonetheless.  This half of the book builds on the previous section by proving that Mick had lost none of that supremely honed survival instinct.  The very last part of the book touches on yet another direction he takes in his life, that of joining the Merchant Navy, but that, as they say, is another story.

Something I feel I have to mention is the language of the book, which is colourful - left in for authenticity (a must for a biography - keep it real) - and also the slang.  Some of the phrases are purely South London and may be a little confusing to some people not familiar with such phraseology.  Knowing this, I have endeavoured to place as many explanatory notes in the text as possible, without interrupting the flow.  Having said this, I hope that the most of the humour and poignancy of the book will still be apparent.  

The readership I am aiming for mainly with "Urchin Along" is middle-aged to pension age.  I believe that a lot of Mick’s generation, in reading the book, will fully identify with the events in his childhood during the War, so making the book all the more enjoyable and, needless to say, his army stories should prove entertaining for many an ex-National Serviceman of Conscript.  As they say, people will always love nostalgia.

About the Author

I am a 35 year old single woman, slowly stagnating in yet another dead-end office job, desperately wanting to win a million, retire early and write for a living. I trained originally as a cook,... and sorry, nobody’s going to get a cook book out of me...no...I ain’t gonna do it! So, anyway, I got fed up with being screamed at by some chef who had an attitude problem - they usually do - just because I’d peeled a potato at the wrong angle for heaven’s sake. Stuck cooking for eight years and then trained to work on computers. Yeah, I thought I may as well start earning some real money for a change. That’s when I got started with writing. Well, office work is dire at best and it didn’t take me long to begin to lose the will to live. I needed an outlet. Now I have one.