- Hardcover: 304 pages
- Publisher: Doubleday (12 Feb 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0385615574
- ISBN-13: 978-0385615570
- Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 14.6 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 534,311 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Paperboy
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Product Description
Review
'The book is fabulous, and I hope it sells forever' --JOANNE HARRIS
Review
'Entrancing, funny, deeply moving and wonderfully written. Please read it'
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Paperboy by Christopher Fowler.
Reviewed by Stephen Groves
First I would like to say how much I enjoyed reading the biographical story of the early life of Mr Fowler, as I am not a great reader of biographies myself and tend to find them heavy going and sometimes boring. Believe me no worries on that count here. This is a book that evokes memories of a 1960 lonely suburban London boy with a passion for reading and dreams of being a writer, living with the fashions, toys, attitudes, household products, strange foods and films and television of the time, a must for readers born in those years and it also handily explains them to those who were not.
The inventiveness and imagination of Christopher Fowlers childhood, the rebellion of youth, the mistakes and experiences all causing the reader to turn the next page, I finished this book in two sittings so enthralled had I become with the Fowler story.
This book has that rare power to transport the reader to long forgotten memories and experiences of their own life as Mr Fowlers family life unfolds. Many parts of the book made me laugh out loud remembering the fads and home DIY, the eccentric relatives and some made me just reflect upon the poignant intimate family moments. The mother who encouraged her son's dreams of being a writer is both moving and inspiring, small acts of courage and sacrifice by parents hidden amongst the daily chaos of family life and a difficult marriage.
The relationship between father and son is explored with those moments of lost chances and in the latter part of the book simple acts of love, compassion and understanding that hit home hardest. This book should be made into a film - it's the Billy Elliot for writers !
I simply urge you to read this book.
Reviewed by Stephen Groves
First I would like to say how much I enjoyed reading the biographical story of the early life of Mr Fowler, as I am not a great reader of biographies myself and tend to find them heavy going and sometimes boring. Believe me no worries on that count here. This is a book that evokes memories of a 1960 lonely suburban London boy with a passion for reading and dreams of being a writer, living with the fashions, toys, attitudes, household products, strange foods and films and television of the time, a must for readers born in those years and it also handily explains them to those who were not.
The inventiveness and imagination of Christopher Fowlers childhood, the rebellion of youth, the mistakes and experiences all causing the reader to turn the next page, I finished this book in two sittings so enthralled had I become with the Fowler story.
This book has that rare power to transport the reader to long forgotten memories and experiences of their own life as Mr Fowlers family life unfolds. Many parts of the book made me laugh out loud remembering the fads and home DIY, the eccentric relatives and some made me just reflect upon the poignant intimate family moments. The mother who encouraged her son's dreams of being a writer is both moving and inspiring, small acts of courage and sacrifice by parents hidden amongst the daily chaos of family life and a difficult marriage.
The relationship between father and son is explored with those moments of lost chances and in the latter part of the book simple acts of love, compassion and understanding that hit home hardest. This book should be made into a film - it's the Billy Elliot for writers !
I simply urge you to read this book.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Paperboy is simply one of the best, most charming, delightful, magical, warm, heartbreaking, laugh out loud and at the same time touching books I have read in many a year, if ever. It's a book that gathers you up from the first page and drags you by the hand, like an excited but slightly solemn child, into a past that even though not yours, gives you the feeling of recollection from some forgotten room of once discarded memories.
Ostensibly it is the story of a youngster (Christopher) growing up and discovering the joys, and terrors, of reading in a household where there were precious few books and even less understanding for an imaginative boy! It is also a glimpse into an England fast disappearing, if not altogether gone. An England parts of which we were glad to see the back of, post war austerity, terrible TV entertainment and dreadful food. And some we wish we could recapture, endless childhood summers, the quiet nature of our streets and a sense that big brother wasn't looking over our shoulder every second of every day.
And don't worry if these days are, to you, nothing more than entries in a contemporary history text or cultural blanks due to one being of a foreign disposition, the more obscure or forgotten references are explained in a series of illuminating and hilarious footnotes! It is a book that quite simply makes the past come to life and does so through it's affectionate recollections of the small things, a neighbours rabbit, a defunct chocolate bar and all the little details that are almost always overlooked in more hulking biographies. It also captures effortlessly the strange, almost surreal world; to a growing child; of the adults that inhabited the streets of South London in the 60s.
This is also book contains a warmth that shines through even the most heart wrenching moments. (I defy anybody to remain unmoved by the fate of a simple, slim volume of verse) and it is that sense of warmth that stays with you long after you put the book down and turn on the TV to be confronted with yet another un-reality abomination filling your screen.
So if you want to be entertained, enthralled, moved and made to laugh out loud by reality entertainment then pick up a copy of Paperboy today. You won't regret it.
Ostensibly it is the story of a youngster (Christopher) growing up and discovering the joys, and terrors, of reading in a household where there were precious few books and even less understanding for an imaginative boy! It is also a glimpse into an England fast disappearing, if not altogether gone. An England parts of which we were glad to see the back of, post war austerity, terrible TV entertainment and dreadful food. And some we wish we could recapture, endless childhood summers, the quiet nature of our streets and a sense that big brother wasn't looking over our shoulder every second of every day.
And don't worry if these days are, to you, nothing more than entries in a contemporary history text or cultural blanks due to one being of a foreign disposition, the more obscure or forgotten references are explained in a series of illuminating and hilarious footnotes! It is a book that quite simply makes the past come to life and does so through it's affectionate recollections of the small things, a neighbours rabbit, a defunct chocolate bar and all the little details that are almost always overlooked in more hulking biographies. It also captures effortlessly the strange, almost surreal world; to a growing child; of the adults that inhabited the streets of South London in the 60s.
This is also book contains a warmth that shines through even the most heart wrenching moments. (I defy anybody to remain unmoved by the fate of a simple, slim volume of verse) and it is that sense of warmth that stays with you long after you put the book down and turn on the TV to be confronted with yet another un-reality abomination filling your screen.
So if you want to be entertained, enthralled, moved and made to laugh out loud by reality entertainment then pick up a copy of Paperboy today. You won't regret it.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Once in a while you get the book that you could read and read and you dont want it to end( I am 50 pages from the end sadly....). I am going to give everyone I know this book this year for their Birthday safe in the knowledge that they will enjoy it as much as I have - Observant and full of detail...and here was me thinking I was the only detail geek child who remembers all and never gets to share it! well done-fabulous
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
re-entry to my own childhood
Essential reading for every Englishman in his fifties! Only four stars from me, though, as the final quarter of the book becomes maudlin and the brilliant comedy drains away. Read more
Published 27 days ago by charlie
most enjoyable
most entertaining nostalgic story about growing up in the 1960s . Would had liked rather less of the cinema trips and the comics [ because I dont really know about these] but I... Read more
Published 11 months ago by cartoon
Interesting
Since Christopher Fowler and I are of an age and a similar background, I found much of this slightly nostalgic. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Music addict
nope, this is a very bad book
Think of each and any cliché ever produced about life in 1950's Britain - especially those derived from black and white films. Read more
Published 14 months ago by E. Clarke
Paperboy - a review
This is the autobiography of the popular writer Christopher Fowler and like many of his short stories it has the power to make you laugh, make you think and to ultimately recognize... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Mike Carrington
Echos from the past
Paperboy is a wonderful book with has been elegantly written. I could hear echos of my own life in so much of what Christopher Fowler has written and I think anyone born during the... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Joe N
Sharp and nostalgic---no-one from the baby boomer generation should...
This is a book to cherish. Christopher Fowler (author of the hugely enjoyable urban fantasies, Roofworld and Calabash, as well as many great spooky short stories)is just a few... Read more
Published 17 months ago by Goth lady
Life during the not-so-swinging sixties . . .
I bought this book on the strength of these reviews - and at the time of writing my own, "Paperboy" still only has 5 star reviews. Sorry, but I've got to break the pattern. Read more
Published on 18 April 2010 by Roger Risborough
Laugh,cry,Gasp ...a book i cant put down
this is only a review of my 27 pages i have read, this was my childhood, my life,my food my parents and family, this is excellent and i want it to go on forever. Read more
Published on 22 Feb 2010 by Ms. D. M. Matthews
Paperboy
Outstanding, for any Christopher fowler fans or anyone born in the sixties or early seventies, this is a must have. Read more
Published on 27 July 2009 by P. A. Samuel
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