So They Call You Pisher!: A Memoir

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Description

"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 the Aldermaston March to ban the bomb, writing and performing in experimental political theatre, getting arrested during the 1968 movements.

Reviews

Throughout his career, Rosen has inspired children and adults to fall in love with reading. * Independent *
The lovely thing about Rosen's 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 *
A storyteller, performer and broadcaster as well as a poet and sometime prankster. He has been involved in producing over 140 children's books. He has a warm, witty and generous style - there is nothing precious about his work . . .He is a fierce critic of the tick-box teaching of literature in schools and has spent his life trying to put the imagination and fun back into books. There are few forms of wordsmithing at which Mr Rosen does not excel. * Guardian *
"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. -- Kate Kellaway * The Observer *

Author Bio

Michael Rosen is the author of over 140 books of poetry, stories and politics. He was the Children's Laureate between 2007-9 and is currently the professor of Children'sLliterature at Goldsmiths University. He has won numerous international awards for his work in literature. His most famous book We Are Going on a Bear Hunt, Quick Let's Get Out of Here and Sad Book (both with Quentin Blake).He presents a radio programme on BBC Radio 4 Word of Mouth and co-devised and co-tutors an MA in Children's Literature at Goldsmiths, University of London, where he is Professor of Children's Literature.