Description: A memoir in the tradition of Lorna Sage's BAD BLOOD and Blake Morrison's WHEN DID YOU LAST SEE YOUR FATHER?John Sutherland's childhood ended abruptly the day his father was killed at the beginning of World War Two -- happily before he could kill any Germans. John's widowed mother fell in love with a new man and decamped to Argentina, leaving John to be looked after by various relatives -- some more suited to raising children than others. It was an odd, unsettled childhood and John took refuge in books. He quickly learned how to fit in without disturbing people, and, in doing so, began to store up resentments as a child. These resentments, with the trigger of alcohol in later life, would one day explode -- serially and for many years. The Boy Who Loved Books" is an account of a disrupted childhood, but it is also an account of one man's, often desperate, love affair with reading matter. Books in many ways changed his life, propelling him to university, and sustaining him in the dark times that were to come.It is also a record of the shifting twentieth century and the profound changes that shook society and its ways of dealing with children in the institutions of family, school and university. Review: 'This is a portrait of the lost boy he used to be and in many ways has remained. It's both funny and sad, a real stab at truth-telling' -- David Sexton, Evening Standard 'We glimpse something magical' -- Caroline Angier, Daily Telegraph 20070626 'Sutherland the critic turns unto himself, from Them to I, and from interpretation to self-interpretation ... a book about the growth of a boy, at a particular time, and in a particular way.' -- Ian Samson, Guardian 20070626 'What gives Sutherland's account its edge is his attitude towards his maternal family... although Sutherland's story is interesting, his mother's is more so.' -- Sunday Times 20070626 'This enthralling memoir... As a meditation on the lives of a generation of working-class children who were given chances that their grandparents and their parents could only dream of, it is a deeply moving book.' -- Kathryn Hughes, Mail on Sunday 20070626 'A most entertaining book ! brings to life the world through which its author has lived, a rueful survivor, admitting that we have hardly worked or suffered at all when compared with our forebears' -- Literary Review 20070626 'There is wonderful, feisty resilience about Sutherland and his writing. Between the wry jokes and the everyday history of the post-war aspirational working class, there emerges in this memoir a passionate declaration of love for the mother who was, without question, as much as an addiction for Sutherland as books and booze.' -- Val Hennessy, Daily Mail 20070626 Author Biography: John Sutherland is Emeritus Lord Northcliffe Professor at University College London. He is the author of twenty-two books, including Stephen Spender: The Authorized Biography". He writes regular columns for the Guardian", Financial Times" and New Statesman".
