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Revision as of 17:39, 15 November 2009
, 17:39, 15 November 2009no edit summary
''Tommy's World'' is the lightly fictionalised story of the life of the author's father. It's been built up from stories that Tommy told his son over a pint in the local pub and whilst Billy Hopkins can't vouch for the accuracy of the stories he was told and some characters are composites in the interests of making a better story it is essentially a biography of his father's early life. It's the seventh book which the author has written on similar themes but it can easily be read as a stand-alone and if you were planning on reading more than one Hopkins advises that this might well be a good place to start.
Faction is always a difficult balancing act – being too loyal to the story can mean that there's a lack of dramatic impact, but the story looses loses its point if it strays too far from the known facts. By and large Hopkins treads the line well, giving life to the people but above all bringing to life the Manchester of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It struck me how casually we accept our right to free health care and to the social support of the twentieth century when both were completely absent just a hundred years ago.
If the picture of Manchester as a whole is good, the book really comes to life when Tommy begins work in Smithfield Market. He begins in a low-paid job which doesn't cover what he needs to spend to live and at one point has to move in with his best friend – a donkey. Hard work and perseverance win the day and by the end of the book he's an established porter earning what seems to him like riches.
