http://sydneycarr.wix.com/the-fourth-lad A Geordie Lad, the memoirs of my first twenty years provide an insight into North-East Post-War life in hilarious and painful detail. Born at the end of the World War 2, the Fourth Lad of eleven children with a chauvinistic father and a self-obsessed, vindictive mother, I was raised initially in Pont Street, considered at the time to be one of the toughest but friendliest streets in Ashington. Badly burnt, almost drowned, battered and bruised, I have to learn quickly how to survive my environment and my parents. After seven eventful years, we move to the Fifth Row – another wild but friendly street where my growing pains continue…. ‘It is a fast moving, funny, sad and occasionally harrowing tale of a young boy growing up in a large and at times dysfunctional family, his struggle to survive and ultimately escape his restrictive and disparaging environment – Ideal, if you want to learn about the social climate of that time and place, or if you lived there and then and wish to reminisce...but also a read if you come from neither that time or place and want a book that is laugh-out-loud funny, heartwarming, shocking and uplifting all at the same time.’ ‘A witty story with well observed and amusing descriptions of place, characters and events... readers will find themselves laughing even when they know they really shouldn't, as the author approaches every struggle, disaster and wickedness with humour that should make readers urge the young lad on through the awkwardness and agonies of growing up in an environment that is ready to attack if you let your guard down.’ From my selfish, fag-smoking, pinny-wearing, swearing, rabbit skinning mother who installs terror as a first response in all her offspring...my wild, impervious to signs of danger brothers who somehow manage to survive the many diabolical situations they find themselves in, with a few scars for proof...the highly immaculate, suited, fedora wearing, handlebar mustachioed, completely out of place Uncle Alex who pops in and never leaves... the pig in the pram, to my encounter with a dead man and stint in hell as a young pit lad and then my misdemeanours and misadventures as a naïve soldier and the many varied and colourful characters between – I use them all in an effort to exasperate, make you gasp in shock, move you to tears or burst into unexpected fits of laughter! I eventually find salvation in the form of the little blue-eyed girl who had filled my dreams for 14 years; hopefully my memoirs are, insightful, hilarious, painful and sad but ultimately uplifting.