Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12118 in Books
• Published on: 2004-03-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Publishing News
"A lovely tongue-in-cheek memoir...a wonderful antidote to all those tales of childhood woe pouring from the presses; read and enjoy"

Birmingham Evening Mail
A refreshing read . . . a thoroughly entertaining snapshot of life in the Seventies.

Glasgow Herald
A welcome visitor into any home that houses a Nick Hornby or a Tony Parsons.

Customer Reviews

YOU COULD FALL ASLEEP WHILE ANDREW COLLINS SEARCHES BACK THROUGH HIS CHILDHOOD LOOKING FOR SOMETHING WORTH REMEMBERING....
Where did it all go right....? Good question andrew collins, but unfortunately - no-one cares.
Andrew`s family once appeared on `telly addicts` and he spends pages telling us what they all wore, which jumper noel edmunds wore, what the questions were - and even the answers and how they arrived at them. Then we get to read page after page of andrew`s family tree - who did what for a living, whether they had an allotment or not, if they could drive a car...
On pancake day, andrew, along with all his school friends, went on a visit to the local fire station....then we read about him playing with his action man...
(it really is a job and half keeping up with all the excitement in this book...)
Andrew thinks too many `whingers` have written books about their terrible childhood - like dave pelzer ( a child called it ) and he wants to tell us about `a normal childhood.`
Andrew, i`m not sure you know what `normal` is, because no normal person could even hope to get away with writing such boring and utter drivel.It`s like watching a complete stranger going through all the family albums and giving you the complete run down on every single person that has ever been even remotely related to them.
I mean, imagine yourself being riveted while he rambles on..
-:
"Pap collins never learned to drive, a moped was as far as he got. My other grandparents both drove, he well into his seventies. Nan passed her driving test first time well into her fifties, but then was too anxious to use the car.."

So you`ve been searching all these years for something that went wrong andrew...? I think this book could be it.

I can't review this one objectively...
,,,because I was born in the same town just 3 years later. Thus I devoured it and passed it on to my brother who found it even more evocative.

I suppose if you were born in the mid to late 60s or if you are a Northamptonian, you'll love it. If you're not, you may find it less appealing but it's warm without being sentimental and it's still a lovely account of middle England in an age that's now lost.

If you want a humorous book by another person from the same town, set later in time and with the usual London-centric view of the town, try Robert Llewellyn's 'The Man on Platform 5' (a sort of 'trading places meets queer eye' in softback)

A Normal Book for Normal People
I grew up in the Seventies not a million miles from Northampton and this book rang a lot of bells for me in many ways. The weirdest thing was recalling that we too used to call stuff we rated, 'skill' something I had totally forgotten until I read this book!

The book is a lot like life, some dull bits, some funny bits, fairly variable overall. I found it entertaining rather than compulsive and amusing rather than hilarious, but good enought to merit me bothering to find the next one to read (Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now).

And he's right. It's about time someone wrote more books about growing up normal...