When I Were A Meerkat is an extension of the 100 000 selling Portico title When I Were A Lad. Already it has generated spin-offs: When I Were A School Lad & When I Were A Nipper. In Meerkat instead of raggedtrousered children scrabbling around the streets getting put in perilous positions
- the stock in trade of the previous books
- the north of England is populated with a small number of meerkats. They do their best to escape the grinding poverty & poor schooling to make a better life for themselves. Meerkats get put to work down the mines go to Blackpool for their holidays & mess about on trams. The meerkat world & the human world easily intermingle in a reworking of many of the photos first used in When I Were A Lad.