This Boy - Tapa dura

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Alan Johnson was born in May 1950. He is a British Labour Party politician who served as Home Secretary from June 2009 to May 2010. Before that, he filled a wide variety of cabinet positions in both the Blair and Brown governments, including Health Secretary and Education Secretary. Until 20 January 2011 he was Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer. Johnson has been the Member of Parliament for Hull West and Hessle since 1997.

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Alan Johnson’s childhood was not only difficult but unusual, particularly for a man who was destined to become Home Secretary. Not because of the poverty – many thousands lived in the slums of postwar Britain – but in its transition from two-parent family to single mother and then to no parents at all . . .

This Boy tells 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 assumed parental responsibility at a very young age and fought to keep her brother out of care when she herself was still only a child.

Played out against the backdrop of a vanishing community living in condemned housing, Alan’s story moves from postwar austerity in pre-gentrified Notting Hill, through race riots and school on the King’s Road, Chelsea, to the rock-and-roll years, making a record in Denmark Street and becoming a husband and father whilst still a teenager.

It’s an astonishing and moving story of success against all the odds and a vivid account of a bygone era.