So They Call You Pisher!: A Memoir

(Paperback)

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If you didnt know whether to risk doing something, whats the worst that could happen So they call you pisher! In this humorous and moving memoir, Michael Rosen recalls the first twenty-three years of his life. Born in the North London suburbs, his parents, Harold and Connie, both teachers, first met as teenage Communists in the 1930s Jewish East End. The family home was filled with stories of relatives in London, the United States and France and of those who had disappeared in Europe. Unlike the children around them, Rosen and his brother Brian grew up dreaming of a socialist revolution. Party meetings were held in the front room, summers were for communist camping holidays, till it all changed after a trip to East Germany, when in 1957 his parents decided to leave "the Party." Michael followed his own journey of radical self-discovery: running away to march against the bomb at Aldermaston, writing and performing in experimental political theatre and getting arrested during the 1968 movements.

Reviews

In his writing, he puts on no airs; his literary background (English degree from Wadham, Oxford) has not held him up or back. Sometimes his writing is so simple, you wonder at it: how did he resist the temptation to dress it up He knows in his work at least when to stop. * Observer *
The lovely thing about Rosens writing is that it is rooted in the reality of his own post-war childhood you can smell the matzo bray his father makes as a treat when his mother is out, hear the wheels squeak on his go-kart, sense the thrill of him and his 10-year-old friend Mart on holiday climbing the Sugar Loaf mountain and crossing from Wales into England with their trousers down. * Guardian *
Throughout his career, Rosen has inspired children and adults to fall in love with reading. * Independent *
Its a mishmash, at once merry and pensive, of personal memoir, a history of left politics in postwar England, a portal into a lost Jewish London and a portrait of the artist as a nervy young man. -- Sukhdev Sandhu * Guardian *

Author Bio

Michael Rosen is the author of over 140 books of poetry, stories and politics. He was the Childrens Laureate between 20072009 and is currently the Professor of Childrens Literature at Goldsmiths University. He has won numerous international awards for his work in literature. He presents Word of Mouth on BBC Radio 4.