Clever Girl by Brian Thompson

Clever Girl by Brian Thompson

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Summary

Clever Girl is a brilliantly observed portrait of the 1950s. We join Brian Thompson on his erratic journey towards adulthood as he makes a bid for independence via National Service, university and, disastrously, marriage.

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Clever Girl by Brian Thompson

Brian Thompson groped his way to being a grown up. He excelled at school and met a girl - the girl of the title - who recognised his ambition to escape the miserable lives his parents had made for each other. After such a disastrous childhood, with her he set himself the task of discovering the healing waters of pure ordinariness. Brian spent his National Service in the King's African Rifles, fighting a colonial war in Kenya, with the dubious assistance of his platoon sergeant, one Idi Amin. Despite skirmishes with the Mau Mau, his most serious injury was playing football with a biscuit tin on Christmas Day, 1954. 'Thank God we have a navy,' his father sighed when he returned home. He read English at Cambridge in the last days of old-style university education and at the very cusp of the new popular culture ushered in by rock and roll. Suitably confused, and with what his father liked to call the real world lapping at his feet, he did what was considered the right thing. He married the Clever Girl.
Brian Thompson was born in Lambeth, London in 1935. His first volume of memoir, Keeping Mum, was published by Atlantic in 2006 to critical acclaim. He is also the author of several acclaimed biographies including A Monkey Amongst Crocodiles and The Nightmare of a Victorian Bestseller.
SKU Unavailable
ISBN 13 9781843545446
ISBN 10 1843545446
Title Clever Girl
Author Brian Thompson
Condition Unavailable
Binding Type Hardback
Publisher Atlantic Books
Year published 2007-03-01
Number of pages 256
Cover note Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.