Product Description

Growing up in south Yorkshire in the Thirties and Forties, Henry Pratt is a podgy schoolboy who is no good at games and not exactly brilliant at work. By the creator of Reggie Perrin, this is a comic tale of two nations - north and south, lower and upper - and of a boy who doesn't fit in anywhere.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #298138 in Books
• Published on: 1989-12-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Customer Reviews

You will never stop smiling!
On March 13th 1935, at Number 23 Paradise Lane, Thurmarsh, Henry Pratt was born.
This is the story of young Henry's struggle from the poverty of South Yorkshire, through the hardship of World War II and the terror of public school.
Short sighted, plump un-athletic and over imaginative, with a parrot strangler for a father, Henry has the world against him from the outset. Especially with the prospect of war looming and the possibility of Hitler invading our Isles.
Throughout the story Henry tries in vain to find friends, religion, sex and the meaning of his own existence. What he finds is not what he expects.
Yet history loves a loser. And Henry is the typical anti-hero. This book is a thrilling tale of his battle to find frienship and happiness in a world where everyone and everything seems to be against him.
The book is pure fiction, yet it is written in such brilliant style that one cannot help but feel that somewhere at sometime Henry Pratt lived his hopeless existence. Nobbs manages to make a normal non-descript anti-hero and make him into a very real and lovable character. Very few writers can achieve this and Nobbs must be admired for his skill.
I have never laughed so much at one book. There are times when you want to laugh and times when you want to cry, but you will never stop smiling.

An all-time classic
This story tells of the life of young Henry Pratt. Born in Thurmarsh, he feels no real links to his mother, or his father, and to his schoolmates. The earlier parts of the story are set against the backdrop of The Second World War, in which Henry's father goes to fight, whilst he and his mother move to the country with family for safe-keeping. It tells quite a sorrowful tale of how Henry never quite fits in. He's seen as an evacuee by children in the country, and when he later moves back to the town, he is seen as a country child. Never the less, the insights into the mind of a young boy are delightful, the humour throughout is sublime, and the way his life is chronicled, from his realisation of his liking girls, as well as later exploring his sexuality, and tragic events within his life is wonderful. i also recommend the sequel to this, 'Pratt of the Argus', which chronicles the later life of Henry Pratt.