Broken Boy,the - Hardcover

Cockburn, Patrick

3.2

25 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0224071084 ISBN 13: 9780224071086

Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd, 2005

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It is very easy to get polio. Patrick Cockburn was six when he woke up one day in the summer of 1956 with a headache and a sore throat. His parents, Claud and Patricia Cockburn, had recently returned to Ireland, to their house in East Cork, careless of the fact that a polio epidemic had broken out in Cork City. He caught the disease and was taken to the fever hospital where, alone for the first time in his life, he was kept in isolation. The virus attacks the nerves of the brain and the spinal cord leading to paralysis of the muscles. Patrick could no longer walk. The Broken Boy is at once a memoir of Patrick Cockburn's own experience of polio, a portrait of his parents, both prominent radicals, and the story of the Cork epidemic, the last great polio epidemic in the world, affecting 50,000 people.
'Cockburn's account is both sad and entertaining, and altogether evocative of a vanished Ireland' -- Jeremy Lewis, Sunday Times'Patrick Cockburn has pulled off something remarkable.' -- The Observer'This is a gentle, uncomplaining story written with affection and insight' -- Maeve Binchy, Mail on Sunday'an often perceptive, constantly genre defying gem' -- Tom Adair, Scotland on Sunday'charming, interesting and moving by turn' -- Anthony Daniels, Sunday Telegraph'he pace is always expert and what at first glance might seem a grim memoir is never less than entertaining' -- Irish Review of Books'replete with historical interest, boasts rich family portraits and exudes considerable charm' -- Michael Arditti, Daily MailThis is a gentle, uncomplaining story written with affection and insight. -- Maeve Binchy in The Mail on Sunday, 14 August 2005This memoir, like his journalism from the Middle East and elsewhere, is that of an unbroken man. -- Cal McCrystal in The Independent on Sunday, 14 August 2005.

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Review:

'Cockburn’s account is both sad and entertaining, and altogether evocative of a vanished Ireland' -- Jeremy Lewis, Sunday Times

'Patrick Cockburn has pulled off something remarkable.' -- The Observer

'This is a gentle, uncomplaining story written with affection and insight' -- Maeve Binchy, Mail on Sunday

'an often perceptive, constantly genre defying gem' -- Tom Adair, Scotland on Sunday

'charming, interesting and moving by turn' -- Anthony Daniels, Sunday Telegraph

'he pace is always expert and what at first glance might seem a grim memoir is never less than entertaining' -- Irish Review of Books

'replete with historical interest, boasts rich family portraits and exudes considerable charm' -- Michael Arditti, Daily Mail

This is a gentle, uncomplaining story written with affection and insight. -- Maeve Binchy in The Mail on Sunday, 14 August 2005

This memoir, like his journalism from the Middle East and elsewhere, is that of an unbroken man. -- Cal McCrystal in The Independent on Sunday, 14 August 2005

Book Description:

A memoir about the last great polio epidemic, by an author who was one of its victims.

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