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A Good Start, Considering
As the Second World War comes to an end, an eleven-year-old London boy finds himself alone in the world. Alan Carey lost his parents in an air raid, and is taken into Barton House, a gaunt Victorian children's home where the staff range from hostile to vicious. Soon Alan falls prey to systematic sexual abuse from the sadistic Jacko, with ensuing confusion and shame. The teenage brother of a schoolfriend offers him love and affection, but the adult world soon comes between them, and even conspires to cast Alan as the guilty seducer. In just twelve months, a bright and sociable boy learns that no grown-up can be trusted, and settles instead for a fierce and reclusive independence.Writing in a spare and elegant language, Peter Ryde conveys the authentic voice of a young boy struggling to survive in a desperate situation.
288 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 2, 2023
An absolutely first rate novel/memoir of growing up in post war London. Unfortunately I can find out nothing about the author or the book so it impossible to know how much personal experience recollection but when I read the following final words of 'A Good Start, Considering' I found it impossible not to believe that it was based on experience:
"...As boys, we thought of childhood as something you had to live through before you could qualify as a real person. But nowadays, when I see kids playing in the street, or think about us all and the way we were, it often seems to me we got it wrong; that it's children who are the real people, and adults only the worn-out empty shells of them..."
It is beautiful and moving and stunning portrayal of a different era - I am sure younger readers would be horrified by what takes place and demand warnings, etc. but what is fine is that the account is full of horrors but also so ordinary joys. It is a different world and the way these things were written about as recently as 1999 (its year of publication) displays better then anything that hoary adage about the past being a different country.
This book also reinforces my continuing anger at the way early Gay Men's Press books were ignored and continue to be largely forgotten. GMP published first rate books and even those that are less than brilliant have a quality and importance way above most of the fiction published in the UK at the time. This is one of its very fine books - that it took a 'Gay' press to publish is an indictment of UK publishing. It is a wonderful novel/memoir of childhood/adolescence in post WWII London and deserves to be rediscovered by younger audience. One of my favourites for 2026.
"...As boys, we thought of childhood as something you had to live through before you could qualify as a real person. But nowadays, when I see kids playing in the street, or think about us all and the way we were, it often seems to me we got it wrong; that it's children who are the real people, and adults only the worn-out empty shells of them..."
It is beautiful and moving and stunning portrayal of a different era - I am sure younger readers would be horrified by what takes place and demand warnings, etc. but what is fine is that the account is full of horrors but also so ordinary joys. It is a different world and the way these things were written about as recently as 1999 (its year of publication) displays better then anything that hoary adage about the past being a different country.
This book also reinforces my continuing anger at the way early Gay Men's Press books were ignored and continue to be largely forgotten. GMP published first rate books and even those that are less than brilliant have a quality and importance way above most of the fiction published in the UK at the time. This is one of its very fine books - that it took a 'Gay' press to publish is an indictment of UK publishing. It is a wonderful novel/memoir of childhood/adolescence in post WWII London and deserves to be rediscovered by younger audience. One of my favourites for 2026.
September 8, 2010
It's been ten years since I read this book.
Ten years, and I still think about it every once in a while.
I wish to know more about this writer. He only wrote this book from what I can tell, and that's a shame.
"A Good Start, Considering", is one of those rare books that I can undoubtedly classified as a masterpiece. It's not available as an ebook, and today I would probably not have gone out of my way to get a hold of it, and that is a true shame.
If you are able to get a hold of this little tale, please do yourself the favor of giving it a try.
Who knows, maybe you'll still think about it ten years later as well.
Ten years, and I still think about it every once in a while.
I wish to know more about this writer. He only wrote this book from what I can tell, and that's a shame.
"A Good Start, Considering", is one of those rare books that I can undoubtedly classified as a masterpiece. It's not available as an ebook, and today I would probably not have gone out of my way to get a hold of it, and that is a true shame.
If you are able to get a hold of this little tale, please do yourself the favor of giving it a try.
Who knows, maybe you'll still think about it ten years later as well.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews