NOBODY IN PARTICULAR

by Cherry Simmonds

NOBODY IN PARTICULAR is the hand-on-heart, honest, charming and occasionally tear-inducingly tragic, often laugh out loud funny story of what it was like to grow up in Liverpool in the 1950s and '60s as the youngest child in a large and somewhat eccentric Anglo-Irish family: Cherry's father would while away the hours playing his guitar in the outside loo until the pubs opened while her mother seemed to be either menopausal or depressed or both, and devoted most of her energies into saving for a divorce or her own business - whichever came cheapest! Capturing the despondency and deprivations of post-war England as embodied in the back streets of Liverpool and the subsequent vibrancy and liberation of the swinging sixties - the decade of the Beatles, national strikes and Liverpool FC winning the FA cup for the first time - this is an ebullient tale told by a natural storyteller. NOBODY IN PARTICULAR is not only a funny, affecting and nicely self-deprecating personal story (peopled by some splendidly observed larger-than-life characters - her family) but also a rather wonderful slice of social history, evoking a bygone yet still familiar and fondly remembered era.

288 pages, Paperback

First published May 12, 2003

Reviews

[Darla Ebert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Parts of this book were very hard to read, not that the author was physically abused, yet the verbal abuse and other inscrutable, inexplicable events visited upon her by her own family are beyond me and made me uneasy. Nevertheless I persevered and can endorse Cherry's story. She was quite a survivor

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightful read. Not my usual genre but I had nothing to read so scoured my daughter's bookshelf and came up trumps!
A tale if hardship and poverty, friendship, family and love. Surviving the bad times and rejoicing the good times. Heartfelt, moving and beautifully written. I had a good giggle along the way and enjoyed every chapter.

[Dora · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little gem of a book. I wasn’t expecting much, just a quiet read to take me through a stressful period. However, it was funny, heart warming and I didn’t want it to end.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the interest of this book was lost on me as I am familiar with the setting and my parents grew up in almost identical circumstances. This might have something to do with the fact that the author is my grandmother's younger sister (and so my mother's aunt).
I enjoyed the book for the family interest but to readers with a knowledge of working class Britain there may not be an awful lot to learn from this book. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to someone for whom the setting is unfamiliar or "exotic" though. I imagine one of the reasons it was so popular in New Zealand was an insight in to a different place and a different time. I think the author (or should I call her great aunt Cherry??) does well in capturing and portraying a strong sense of place and the story of her life is very readable. It helps that she writes very favourably about my nana :)

EDIT: I should say though that it's a shame that the very synopsis of the book says that it takes place in Liverpool. For any of those interested/who didn't know, it is not set in Liverpool at all. It is set on the other side of the river Mersey, the Wirral peninsula in and around the towns of Wallsey and Birkenhead. These places do have strong links with Liverpool but no one would say that they were the same thing/part of the city itself. Both sides of the Mersey are now the county of "Merseyside" but as far as I am aware, for the majority of the author's young life Liverpool and Wirral were not even in the same counties.
I can only assume the synopsis says Liverpool as that is a far more internationally recognisable place but I feel it's a shame the lesser-known real setting does not get the 'credit'!