Urban Grimshaw and The Shed Crew

by Bernard Hare

You're twelve years old. Your mother's a junkie and your father might as well be dead. You can't read or write, and you don't go to school. An average day means sitting round a bonfire with your mates smoking drugs, or stealing cars.
Welcome to Urban's world.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Autobiography

311 pages, Paperback

First published April 10, 2006

Reviews

[Michael Mccormack · Rating 5 out of 5]

great book, really felt compelled to write a review because,most people are saying Oooooh the author is this and the author is that Bernie, is the most selfless person i have ever met and he saved my life,yes he did most things that he wrote in the book and yes maybe, to you straight heads out there,it may seem irresponsible but he helped more than the shed crew, I was lucky enough to be Bernie's 3rd project,Urban being the Fourth,I am not in prison or on drugs,because of Bernie,My life is awesome and the thing is look around you and think,how can i be more like him and stop judging him, Bernie wrote an article for the Guardian called The good conductor read that and maybe you may get your head round why Bernie helped all us kids,to be fair the film rights have been sold and it is being made into a motion picture as we speak

[jody bradshaw · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading the reviews on here, I wondered if I had read the same book as everyone else! It was a good read, but I was suspicious of the authors intention! Yes, life is awful sometimes, but his blaming the system and the government for the shed crews awful behaviour was frustrating! I have always wondered about this odd guys on estates who let kids wag it in their homes and get up to alsorts, and now I understand! Hare hasn't the maturity to exist alongside mature, respectable adults!! Why would he get a tattoo of the shed crew?? What example was he giving?? He didn't help those kids by telling them what they were doing was justified?? We all hear about naughty kids on estates..and yes, I guess I do feel sorry for them, but what about the people they terrorise, the houses they rob, the people they beat up?? How is that a result of thatcher!
He was a very odd man! I have a sister who is greta!! And she changed her life by the intervention of social workers and police!
Ultimately, I think he romanticised his involvement with those kids.. And if you read the ending of the book, they all ended up in prison, on heroin or pregnant!!
I am just shocked by this book, and I had a horrible childhood..

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't quite know how to rate this book. On one hand I enjoyed it and it intrigued me enough to carry on reading. On the other I became very suspicious of the authors intentions. Maybe my job in this sector causes me to be hyper concerned by any good intentions directed to a child but it left me with an uncomfortable feeling when reading. However, I do agree that it is a good read and one that will keep you going to the end.

[Fernanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought provoking book that should be read by everyone. It opens your eyes and makes you think about the state of society and what we need to do to improve things for all.

[Maria Grazia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leeds in the 1990s is the setting for this story. Chop is an ex social worker who dropped his job and retreated in a world of drinking and drugs, living at the margins of society. It is in those unfortunate situation that he meets Urban and the Shed Crew, a gang of feral kids who live stealing or as young prostitutes.
One day Chop saves young Urban’s life and since then they become almost inseparabile, and Chop becomes the only adult member of the Shed Crew. Urban is twelve, his mother a drug-addict whom Chop has had an affair with in the past - or more probably has shared some drug-taking occasions with. His sympathy for Urban, 12 years old, is immediate. Chop’s house becomes a sort of emergency service for those lost kids, he helps them as he can in his own wrecked situation listening to them, making them write or draw or play chess in his house or simply giving them refuge when they need one. All that make Chop a role model to them and that forces him to be one, which involves drinking less and giving up drugs eventually.
All the characters in the book are real people. At the end of the book we are informed that some of the Crew are doing well now that they are grown-up but some others are still in trouble. After writing the book, Bernard Hare’s life changed and he decided to adopt Urban Grishaw. All well that ends well.
This book was a real punch in the stomach, eye-opening, informative, heartbreaking, thought - provoking but at the same time extremely funny, something like watching a serious damnation-of-British-society documentary, focusing on degraded urban areas in big cities, but with an ironical narrating voice and the insertion of comical anecdotes here and there. It’s not a book you can read without being disturbed or left puzzled, of course, but you will find yourself smiling more often than you expect.
It is a book through which you learn that a non-judgemental attitude, an open mind and an open heart can do miracles with young people, troubled or not troubled. This is what Bernard Hare understood and why he was accepted by the crew and could help those young people. Not all of them, but at least some. He didn’t know what he had let himself in when he decided to join the gang and do something for those kids but, certainly, something Bernard Hare did for himself too: his generosity saved also his own life giving to it a completely different turn.
(Read my post at FLY HIGH! http://flyhigh-by-learnonline.blogspo...)

[Danielle Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is amazing! It's set in the area that I come from in Leeds and was written when I was younger! I probably enjoyed it more because I know all the areas that it was on about and what they used to be like!

[Belle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book that keeps you reading similar to how car smashes on the highway attract the attention of rubber neckers. It is shocking and heartbreaking. Having worked with vulnerable people with complex needs and having had to work professionally along side Social Services first hand, I've seen some of the most unprofessional and downright shady behaviour from Social Workers. In fact it led to me changing careers entirely, so I share some of this author's views and frustrations. However, I also admit that initially I was uneasy about his motives for joining this gang, which is basically my only negative regarding the book. I couldn't help myself from judging him, although as I progressed with the book I realised that he was in fact a brave man to be so honest about himself. Not many people would be that honest and would rather try to hide their mistakes and weaknesses or atleast water them down.

While some people may consider him immature, with potentially sinister motives, I choose to believe that he is a man with his own demons who did his best in supporting these kids in ways that might seem initially suspicious or maybe irresponsible but in truth these kids wouldn't have engaged with a conventional adult and I think these kids gave him something to believe in again and this was his motive.

As much as I found this book interesting and thought provoking, it re-ignited my political frustrations, so I know that this is probably one of those books that not everybody will agree with and for this reason it would probably make a good book club read as it encourages debate.

[John Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought I'd made a big mistake when I started to read this book. It reminded me of the effect on me of the opening minutes of the film Clockwork Orange, the first time I saw it. But in both cases the initial shock to the system was necessary.

Once that was out of the way I was able to move into kid Urban's world, seen largely through the eyes of Chop, (Bernard Hare?) who he chose to adopt as a father figure. Mutual gurus, their relationship is at times moving, funny and pretty unsentimental. Both Urban and Chop are failures in the eyes of a Society which failed them both. But the human spirit can survive that and whose values are right anyway?

Well worth reading and unable to decide whether it goes on a fiction or non fiction shelf. I'd like to go with the former but truth is stranger.. and I guess it's got to be the latter.

[Claire Thackray · Rating 2 out of 5]

What an amazing book.. difficult to read at times but tells the story of 90s Leeds 9 in a thought provoking and human way. I grew up in East End Park and was a friend of Angela Pearce, this book had helped me to finally understand what and how it happened and how we have a generation of failed children. Its taken me over 20 years to come to terms with it and as I finished this amazing book I realised how much it helped me to find peace from the first to the very last page. Thank you

[Doris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story throws light on subjects that many choose to avoid or acknowledge. A stark illustration of what happens when those at the bottom of society are marginalized by public policy. Despite the grim events, I found this to be riveting, humorous, intelligent and compassionate. Kudos to Mr. Hare, Urban and his peers. I wish them all well.

[Col · Rating 2 out of 5]

Enjoyed the book but I wouldn't trust the author as far as I could throw him.......very strange.

[Diana Long · Rating 5 out of 5]

True story written by the author depicting his interactions with a group of children who have fallen through the cracks of a social system that doesn't work. The author takes great pains reveling the everyday lives of the children ans his special relationship with one in particular, Urban. Mr. Hare also revels his own failings in an unforgiving structure where once your down, rather than pull you up the government would rather keep you down and you are always employing methods just to exist. Thoughtfully written and honest, the subject not only applies to Britian, but it occurs throughout the world.

[Joe Stamber · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the story of an unconventional social worker (if my memory serves me right) who gets closely involved with some of the kids on his social worker radar. We get a first hand view of deprivation in inner city Leeds and learn a bit of the gang lingo on the way. The kids do just about everything they shouldn't be doing, but the story is told in such a way that you can't help but feel some empathy with them. The book's not really a 4/5, but better than a 3/5. Definitely woth a read.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I didn't know this was a true story, I would have thought it was a novel. I didn't realize how gritty and depressing it could be but it ended with a sense of some kind of hope. It's not an easy story to read in terms of what happens but the writing is conversational. So glad the glossary was provided in the front since there is so much slang. The author certainly has a leftist POV but this is his story and I didn't even mind the anti-American rants.

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

i bought this book in geneva because i finished reading all of my english reading materials and feared that i wouldn't find anything to read on the train. as a former anthropology major and a creep hater, i was skeptical about the narrator's intentions. although there is probably a liberal amount of hyberbole thrown into the story, it's a somewhat engaging book.

[Michal H · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall it is a good book but as others have mentioned I do wonder what the authors intention was because he went away with the fairies at parts of the book such as the new religion nonsense and supporting the Bolsheviks and all that crap he goes on about. But overall it is true how these down and out petty criminals are not all bad people just took the wrong path in life.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

a gritty story of life in the yorkshire underclasses

[Lucinda Clarkson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A recommendation from a friend who has not yet read it and its amazing, was sad to put the book back on the shelf.

Would definitely recommend and nice for it to be set local to me

[Aimee Johnstone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic book that reminded me just how harsh society can be on young adults.

[Cathyc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Harrowing and insightful true story of the ferrai children and developing underclass in Leeds in 90’s Thatcherite Britain.

[Plum-crazy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh where…& how!...do I start with my thoughts on this book? Well, it’s not something I’d normally read but as it happened I’ve recently read ”Harold’s End” , a tale of American streetkids & I was curious to see how this account would compare.

It’s a difficult book for me to review as it’s caused me many conflicting emotions. The cover says ”A Shocking story….” & yes I was shocked but I was also saddened. I’m not so naïve that I don’t know that people live like this but it’s always “somewhere else” not just down the road from my safe little world.

I found both Urban & Chop to be complex characters. For an illiterate 12 year old, Urban seemed very eloquent at times. Indeed the fact that the group as a whole had an interest in chess & poetry seemed very much at odds with their lifestyle but maybe that’s just me making stereotypical assumptions about teenage delinquents! I’m not a poetry lover but I did enjoy- & was impressed – by their poems which opened each chapter.

Chop was someone I just couldn’t get my head round. Part of me wanted to applaud & admire him for his devotion to these kids & his efforts to help but on the other hand I always felt a sense of unease with regard to his dealing with the crew. Like the crew he takes drugs, more often than not with them, is a mess emotionally, seems incapable of holding down a relationship with another adult & seems to think he is actually one of the crew….not a grown man who should be acting more responsibly! I can see at times that he has tried to instil into the gang the difference between right & wrong but at other times his ideas seem very skewed to me! Chop says that he’s taught them to draw the line… They might have committed the odd manslaughter between them – accidents happen after all – but never murder” They half batter someone to death but because they never crossed the line to murder, Chop sees it as a job well done? Mmmm…..

Well, I’m going to leave it at that as I could go on, & on & on…this would be a great book for a book club discussion! But one last thing….Urban already had 4 kids by the time he was 21, (he could well be a Grandad by now!), it would be nice to think his children get the love & security he missed out on but sadly I can see the cycle continuing.

[KYH · Rating 5 out of 5]

Auf Englisch gelesen. (Soviel ich weiß, existiert keine deutsche Übersetzung)

Das Buch beschäftigt sich mit der wahren Geschichte von Bernard "Chop" Hare und beschreibt sein Zusammentreffen mit einem Jungen namens Urban und seiner "Crew" anderer Kinder, die sich u.a. in einem Schuppen treffen.
Zeitpunkt des Geschehens ist das Thatcher England, zugleich ist es aber auch zeitlos.

Chop ist schon eine eigene Type, der ganz sicher ein Antiheld mit vielen eigenen Problemen ist, inklusive Drogen. Er versucht nicht die Kinder zu "retten" oder zu beaufsichtigen oder sich überhaupt einzumischen. Und bei einigen Sachen möchte man ihn schon fragen, was das soll. (Man windet sich beim Lesen richtig dabei)
Aber gerade dadurch vertrauen ihm die Kinder vermutlich mehr als anderen Erwachsenen und er gibt ihnen so etwas wie eine Basis.

Was ich an dem Buch faszinierend finde ist dieser Wechsel zwischen deprimierenden und komischen Sache, zwischen Slang und Wortgewandheit, zwischen fehlender Bildung und Bildung - also kurz gesagt die Gegensätze.
Der Autor kann mit Worten jonglieren, soviel ist klar. Und Chop schafft es immer wieder ein wenig Wissen zu verbreiten, sei es Geschichte, Geographie oder Literatur, ohne es offensichtlich darauf anzulegen. Und deshalb wird es angenommen. Und dann haut er wieder einen Klops raus.

Beim Lesen kam es öfter vor, dass ich lachen musste um mich im nächsten Moment zu fragen, ob man über so eine eigentlich ernste Szene überhaupt lachen darf. Dieses Wechselbad der Gefühle hat mit dafür gesorgt, daß mir das Buch wesentlich länger im Gedächnis geblieben ist als andere. Nicht in allen Einzelheiten, aber in seiner Gesamtheit.

Das Buch ist verfilmt worden, das war der Auslöser für mich es zu lesen, aber bisher noch nicht außerhalb von Festivals gezeigt worden. Dem zugehörige Trailer nach zu urteilen ist er aber sehr Nahe am Buch. Und ich hoffe, dass wir ihn bald auch zu sehen bekommen.

[Becca Woodthorpe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Urban Grimshaw and the Shed Crew tells the story of urban from the
point of view of Chop, an ex-social worker who is somewhat
dissolutioned with ͞the system͟. He first encounters the Shed Crew (a
gang of teenagers who spend at least some of their nights in a shed)
through a relationship with Urban’s mum and the first half of the book
is dedicated to describing his first encounter with them moment by
moment. The rest of the book details the impact this night has on him
and documents his interactions with the various members of the
group as they grow up.

It’s not an easy read. The children live desolate and hopeless lives, and
Chop is not much better. Drink and drug abuse abound, crime is a way
of life, and ͞society͟ as most of us would understand it is an alien
concept. However loyalties and friendships are strong and there is a
strict code of conduct guiding this. Although Chop is not much better
than the kids in terms of his bad habits, he is able to have some
influence and his flat becomes a safe space where they can find a
friendly face, learn to read and play chess!

I found the book fascinating because it is set in streets and
neighbourhoods I know well. Little imagination was required because
I know what the streets and tower blocks look like. I’m pleased to
report that the crime and disaffection described in the book is not so
extreme or widespread any more, but I am sure it still exists. In that
sense it was an eye-opener as someone who works with similarly
vulnerable young people.

[Anja Breest · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I really like about this book is that it is continuously changing between saddening descriptions and funny parts, between slang and wordsmithery, between unenducation and education or in short: the opposites. Mr. Hare really can juggle with words and the way Chop manages to spread some knowledge (history, geography, reading...) without much fuss is something I like and which normally comes just after he has done something I cring about.

I hadn't thought I would have to lough out loud. But the description of Chad and Urban getting into the twacked car, with the broken seatbelts etc - I couldn't help. At the same time it is not a funny scene as such. And still. So I sort of confused myself with asking if I should laugh or not.

Sombody asked in a discussion if there wasn't anyone (official) Chad could trust to help? No, I think there wasn't. And help how? That's the problem in this.
The crew only trusted him because he accepted them and what there where doing. Otherwise he would have just been one of the adults they wouldn't let anywhere near them. Of course it is not right. And every time he is standing there doing nothing I want to shout "do something". But what? It is a circle and you only can try to resolve that many things at once to break it. If you do the " right thing" it just backfires. That is probably the most depressing part of it.

As if going up to Aberdeen over the Firth of Forth isn't enough, Chop reads The Hobbit to Urban. I am melting.

[bran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love it. Leeds Leeds Leeds !

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very tough to read at times - quite shocking to realise that one wrong move/decision could shift your life onto a very different path. I struggled with my feelings for the author - really couldn't understand some of the decisions he made, or the actions he took, and sometimes questioned his intentions towards the kids, but I often wondered what the lives of those kids would have been like without his friendship and support. Some of the characters didn't stand a chance of a life that wasn't chaotic - how they actually survived is beyond belief. Well worth a read, I went through a whole load of different emotions and didn't want to put it down til I had discovered what the outcome for each of the characters was.

[Trudy Brasure · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting peek into the lives of children who have fallen through the cracks of society's safety nets. It's a world I'll never know or will never likely rub shoulders with.
Chop is a mixed hero. I admire him for feeling compelled to do something to make a difference. I deplore, however, the simplistic blame-game he espouses in blithering moments of anger against the situations he faces.
The incongruity of accusing distant parties of abnegation of responsibility while at the same time excusing the lack of self-control of himself and those directly related to these children seems ignorant at worst, and pitiful at best.
But I don't need to agree with the author's viewpoint to enjoy this eye-opening exposition of the despair, struggle, and humanity of forgotten youth.

[Patricia Scaife · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very harrowing description of street children living with no supervision or guidance from parents who are either drug or alcohol addled or not actually around, not somewhere in the third world but in inner city Leeds in the 1990's. This is a true story of how the author engaged with a group of them and won their trust in order to help and educate them. The author had his own issues and no love of the police, social services or any kind of authority but he found himself horrified not only at the neglect of these children but at the indifference of the authorities. The story is not only about the children but also about the author's struggles with issues in order to become a role model they could respect but still relate to.

[Ellie L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVED this book. It reminded me of the neighborhood I grew up in and the kids from broken homes that ran in the streets. In this case, its from the view of a disillusioned ex-social worker who gets caught up in the life of his somtimes drugged addled "girlfriend", her wayward children, and a small group of street kids (aka, the Shed Crew). Also in the crew is the young Urban, who he forms a tight bond with. I would love to see a sequel to find out how each of the shed crews lives ended up.

[Maeon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book years ago and its stayed with me so much i now class it as one of my favourite books of all time. I regularly think of Urban, the glue sniffing genius boy down by the sewers, and the Shed Crew and their antics, the epilogue of where they are now, or were then. I've lent this book out several times and have glowing reviews back, and i'm sure it will be one of the few books ill reread one day soon.