London`s Notting Hill in the 1950s was an unimaginably different place to the white stucco splendour it`s known for today. Alan Johnson`s family lived in condemned housing, declared unfit for human habitation, in a cramped flat with no central heating, no electricity & no running water. His mother, Lily, battled against poor health, poverty, domestic violence & chronic loneliness to try & ensure a better life for her children. His sister, Linda, took on an adult`s burden of responsibility & fought to keep the family together when she was still only a child. This personal story is played out against the background of a community on the verge of massive upheavals. We move from postwar austerity, through the early days of immigration & race riots, into the swinging Sixties, when Alan & his band recorded a record on Denmark Street & he became a teenage father & husb&. No matter how harsh the detail, Alan writes with a spirit of generous acceptance, humour & openness which makes his book anything but a grim catalogue of misery. In the end, This Boy is about success against all the odds, & paints a vivid portrait of a bygone era.