The Bucket: Memories of an Inattentive Childhood - Hardcover

Ahlberg, Allan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670923036 ISBN 13: 9780670923038

Publisher: Viking, 2013

Synopsis

The Bucket by Allan Ahlberg - the enthralling childhood story one of Britain's best-loved children's authors

'My mother, who was not my mother, I see her now, her raw red cleaner's hands twisting away at her apron as she struggled to speak. Adoption was a shameful business then in many people's eyes, the babies being mostly illegitimate. Better not speak of it.'

Allan Ahlberg was adopted as a baby. In 1938 he was picked up in London by his new mother and taken back to Oldbury in the Black Country. Now one of the most successful children's book writers in the world, in The Bucket he describes an oddly enchanted childhood lived out in an industrial town during the 1940s, in conditions which today we might describe as 'deprived'. He writes of a father in overalls smelling of wood shavings and oil, of a tough and fiercely protective mother who cries when he discovers that he is adopted, of life assurance policies ('£6 if the child dies under age 3') and fearsome bacon slicers, of half-remembered trips to his mother's sister's grave and to the bluebell woods. And of his first days at school: 'Allan could do much better. He is most inattentive and dreamy at times' (school report, December 1946).

Using a mix of prose and poetry, supported by new drawings by his daughter Jessica and old photographs, The Bucket retrieves a childhood which lovers of Ahlberg's classic picturebooks The Baby's Catalogue, Burglar Bill and Peepo! might feel they have glimpsed before but which are now exquisitely brought to life.

This beautiful, exquisitely designed book, which will also appeal to fans of Gervase Phinn, Alan Bennett, Roald Dahl and Nigel Slater's Toast, will be loved by generations of Ahlberg fans.

'Allan Ahlberg has a string of children's classics to his name' Nicolette Jones, Guardian

Born in Croydon but brought up by his adopted parents in the Black Country town of Oldbury, Allan Ahlberg held jobs as a gravedigger, postman and plumber's mate before becoming a teacher. He taught for ten years before collaborating with his wife Janet on a series of much-loved, now classic children's picture books including Peepo!, Burglar Bill, Cops and Robbers, Each Peach Pear Plum, Woof!, Heard it in the Playground, Please Mrs Butler, The Boyhood of Burglar Bill, The Pencil, Friendly Matches, The Improbable Cat, Goldilocks, My Brother's Ghost, The Mighty Slide, Collected Poems, The Boy, the Wolf, the Sheep and the Lettuce and The Ha Ha Bonk Book.

About this title

Review

A beguiling little gem (Valerie Grove The Times)

A beautiful book. What is evoked is a wartime world in the Black Country ... all perfectly seen as if from a child's perspective (Roger Lewis Daily Mail)

A magical memoir that pulls the reader back to their own youthful experiences, beautifully adorned with illustrations (Jenny Barlow Daily Express)

About the Author

Allan Ahlberg, a former teacher, postman, plumber's mate and grave digger, is in the super-league of children's writers. He has published over 100 children's books and, with his late wife Janet, created such award winning picture books as EACH PEACH PEAR PLUM and THE JOLLY POSTMAN - both winners of the Kate Greenaway Medal. He has also written prize-winning poetry and fiction and lives in Sussex.

About this edition

• Publisher: Viking
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0670923036
• ISBN 13: 9780670923038
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 144