SPOILER ALERTIn this his first book, Johnson vividly invokes his childhood, the early loss of his mother, and being brought up largely by his elder sister in the Rachman slums of north Kensington. Reading this deeply moving book I found it sometimes difficult to reconcile that Johnson grew up in much the same era as me (i am four years his senior) given the poverty and squalor that he lived in. His mother Lily’s life was a constant struggle against loneliness, grinding poverty and poor health, having married the feckless, ne’er-do-well Steve. She died, aged 42, leaving Alan and Linda, aged 13 and 16, to fend for themselves. Johnson’s sister Linda is the real hero of the story. Resisting attempts to take them into care, she succeeded in persuading the local authority to find them a council flat in Battersea and held the fort until Alan was old enough to make his way in the world.Given his start in life Alan Johnson could have been forgiven had he turned into an angry, bitter class-warrior instead of the affable, sensible, laid-back politician that he was to become.If you grew up in much the same era you will find this book riveting. Labour Home Secretary 2009-10 recounts his boyhood, from semi-starvation in the postwar Notting Hill slums through to teenage fatherhood in the rock-and-roll sixties. It’s shocking and tragic how his mother is neglected and abandoned, first by her husband and then by the housing authorities, to a miserable existence and premature death. Nevertheless, told from the resilient, optimistic perspective of a child and teenager, it manages not to be a misery memoir. I’m a child of the same era. My parents moved from a rented flat in NW London to a small house in Kent when I was three. My father and I never quite hit it off, but Johnson’s memoir made me fully appreciate for the first time what my mother meant when she said of him, after his death in 1997, ‘He was a good provider.’
What do You think about This Boy (2013)?
Excellent. If you ever thought there was no need for the welfare system read this book.
—kjk3070
Really touching. Hope there's a follow up to cover his career years.
—SkySailor
One of the best autobiographies I have read in a long time.
—lovemeboo
A revelation in every sense. Loved it.
—shinyaznelf
