Alan Johnson MP at All Saints Church Dulwich - Thursday 5th June

[dulwichbooks]

Dulwich Books in partnership with the Family Rights Group are delighted to host Alan Johnson MP in the Crypt of All Saints Church on Lovelace Road on Thursday 5th June, where he will be discussing his memoir ?This Boy.? Proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to the Family Rights Group (www.frg.org.uk) of which Alan is a patron.

Notting Hill in the 1950s was an unimaginably different place to the white stucco splendour it?s known for today. Alan Johnson?s family lived in condemned housing, declared unfit for human habitation, in a cramped flat with no central heating, no electricity and no running water. His mother, Lily, battled against poor health, poverty, domestic violence and chronic loneliness to try and ensure a better life for her children. His sister, Linda, took on an adult?s burden of responsibility and fought to keep the family together when she was still only a child. This personal story is played out against the background of a community on the verge of massive upheavals. We move from postwar austerity, through the early days of immigration and race riots, into the swinging Sixties, when Alan and his band made a record on Denmark Street and he became a teenage father and husband. No matter how harsh the detail, Alan writes with a spirit of generous acceptance, humour and openness which makes his book anything but a grim catalogue of misery. In the end, This Boy is about success against all the odds, and paints a vivid portrait of a bygone era.

"The best memoir by a politician you will ever read? -The Times

"The biography of a politician like no other - beautifully observed, humorous, moving, uplifting; told with a dry self-deprecating wit and not a trace of self-pity? - The Observer

Family Rights Group are the charity in England and Wales that advises families whose children are involved with or need children?s services because of welfare needs or concerns. They promote policies and practices, including family group conferences that help children to be raised safely and securely within their families, and campaign for effective support to assist family and friends carers, including grandparents who are raising children that cannot live at home.

This event and will be held on Thursday 5th June at 7pm in the Crypt of All Saints Church, Lovelace Road, West Dulwich, London, SE21 8JY.

Tickets are ?10 each (?8 under 18s concession) and are available online from http://alanjohnson.eventbrite.co.uk, by email [email protected], by phone 020 8670 1920, or in person from Dulwich books.

Dulwich Books, 6 Croxted Road, West Dulwich, SE21 8SW 0208 670 1920

www.dulwichbooks.co.uk [email protected]

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[dulwichbooks]

Over the last fortnight Alan Johnson has won both the Orwell Prize for political writing and The Royal Society of Literature?s Ondaatje prize. Tickets are still available from www.alanjohnson.eventbrite.co.uk.