A glorious comedy of misunderstandings set in a seemingly ordinary end-of-wartime suburb
In this second installment on the trials and tribulations of a young boy growing up in Birmingham towards the end of the Second World War, young Morley Charles—the inventive and sexually curious hero of The Pig Bin—is back, and this time with artistic ambitions and some serious anxiety that he won't be clever enough to get into the city’s art school. The resulting lies he tells to advance himself in the eyes of those around him of course bring about all manner of trouble, and Richardson captures perfectly the dialogue of a thirteen year old boy. Both externally with his friends, family, and teachers but also, and most importantly, with himself—the tortuous conversations that Morley conducts in his head to be able to face up to the world are both touching and humorous. At times heart warming and poignant, at others laugh out loud funny, Careless Talk is a charming, witty, and insightful book which leaves readers heart-warmed and wanting to know where life goes next for its young hero.
Arvustused
The dialogue is brilliantly lively and the period scene setting beautifully rendered; it can make you laugh out loud * Independent * Richardson has a gift for idiomatic dialogue. But what is most impressive in these novels is the recreation of the class consciousness of the 1940s * Guardian * A wonderfully warm and humorous evocation of a late 1940s Birmingham childhood, whose underlying sharpness never allows it to descend into simple nostalgia * D.J. Taylor * A moving and often very funny account of the painful adolescence of a young art student shortly after the end of World War II. Morley Charles is agonisingly self-conscious; such is the author's skill and accuracy I ended up caring very much about him * David Nobbs *
MICHAEL RICHARDSON spent his teaching career as head of art in Birmingham secondary schools. His short stories, poems and articles have appeared in the Sunday Times, Mayfair, Private Eye and London Magazine, and his paintings have been widely exhibited. He enjoys walking in areas supplied with old-fashioned pubs not too far from each other, inventing things and, like Morley Charles, masquerading as a foreigner when the occasion demands.
