Milltown Mischief: True Tales of Daring and Adventure in Victorian Bolton

by Allen Clarke

Growing up in Victorian Bolton was definitely not easy for Allen and Midge. Life was harsh, what with dangerous mill work,ever-present hunger, and their shoeless feet always cold. But these two young milltown boys were determined to have as much fun as they could, getting into plenty of mischief on the way. Their often hilarious escapades make for tremendously entertaining reading, but while we can laugh at some of their daring adventures, we have to remember that this is not fiction - these boys were real and all that is described here is true.

224 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2011

Reviews

[Paul Blackburn]

Though there are some interesting stories in this book I wonder how much of it was written by Allen Clarke. Although the cover says it is an Allen Clarke book inside it is copyrighted to Clarke and his granddaughter Shirley Matthews and when I looked at Clarke's bibliography on wikipedia this book isn't there, so I'm assuming that the stories come from him but are held together by a
scaffolding that is far from satisfying.

The book is about the unlikely friendship that develops between two quite different boys, a Bolton version of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, and tells of their journey through childhood together. The background is of raw capitalism that forces parents to send their children out to work part-time because the parents wages (usually one parent) aren't enough for families to even survive without the marginal extra income.

There is also the every day fear of very serious accident where workers lose limbs and their lives as well as tales about drunkenness and thuggery.

But accepting that this state of affairs was truly horrible the story is at times too maudlin for my taste, with one of the boy's mother weeping constantly.

At the end of what is a barely disguised autobiography we are told in detail about what happened in later life to the author but nothing is said of what happened to his greatest childhood pal.

All-in-all the book is far from'Champ'

[Christopher Robinson]

Young boy's book.