Christopher Fowler's memoir captures life in suburban London as it has rarely been seen: through the eyes of a lonely boy who spends his days between the library & the cinema devouring novels comics cereal packets
- anything that might reveal a story. Caught between an ever-sensible but exhausted mother & a DIY-obsessed father fighting his own demons Christopher takes refuge in words. His parents try to understand their son's peculiar obsessions but fast lose patience with him
- & each other. The war of nerves escalates to include every member of the Fowler family & something has to give but does it mean that a boy must always give up his dreams for the tough lessons of real life? Beautifully written this rich & astute evocation of a time & a place recalls a childhood at once entertainingly eccentric & endearingly ordinary.