The Boyhood of Burglar Bill

Burglar Bill

by Allan Ahlberg

Coronation Year, 1953, and in Oldbury a Coronation football competition is organized. The boys from the bottom pitch get a team up, but there's no chance they'll win, of course. They're just the odds and sods - one of them is even a girl - but they're all football crazy and ready and eager to beat off the opposition.A funny and moving story of football and friendship in a world when the streets were full of kids and empty of cars. Not only for boys - and girls - of 9+, there's a real pull of nostalgia for adults as well. And, of course, for all lovers of football, whether on the pitch or in the park.

Genres: Fiction

Hardcover

First published March 1, 2008

About the author

Allan Ahlberg was one of the UK's most acclaimed and successful authors of children's books - including the best-selling Jolly Postman series. Born in Croydon in 1938, he was educated at Sunderland Technical College. Although he dreamed of becoming a writer since the age of twelve, his route to that goal was somewhat circuitous. Other jobs along the way included postman (not an especially jolly one, he recalls), gravedigger, plumber, and teacher.

Ahlberg wrote his first book when he was thirty-seven, after a decade of teaching - a profession that he maintains is "much harder" than being a writer. He says that if he hadn't become a writer, he would have loved to be a soccer player. He was married for many years to fellow children's author Janet Ahlberg, with whom he often worked. Their daughter, Jessica Ahlberg, is also a children's author.

Reviews

[Terry Clague · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story - "we needed to hear it, this story of ours, from each other, from ourselves. Hold it in our minds, shore it up against the never-ending onslaught of events, the wear and tear of time." - the story of Allan Ahlberg's (co-author of great children's fiction such as Funny Bones, Peepo, and of course, Burglar Bill) 1953.

In entering a football tournament with a gang of mates after being excluded from his school's official entry, the scene is set for heroism, comedy, tragedy, and nostalgia. Nobody does nostalgia quite like this -

"Street lights, like everything else, were different in those days. Less light, but more colour. Bottle-green privet hedges, rosey-red house bricks and garden walls, the fading, purpling sky itself".

A brilliant book which I highly recommend, there's even room for an enjoyable spot of score settling at the expense of an English teacher (whom among us wouldn't like to do that): "Miss Palmer placed me 39th in the class for composition. Oh dear, and here I am now writing, composing a whole book. And she's in it."

[Hilary]

Burglar Bill was such a childhood favourite of my children, so much so I can remember hiding it sometimes just because I wanted to read something else for once. I expected this to shed some light on Burglar Bill's childhood, why he embarked on his life of crime, where his parents were when he was going off the rails etc. I persevered with this but it seemed unrelated and purely about some children forming a football team, which is great but on a personal level, very uninteresting to me.

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was thought provoking and moving and entertaining.

Perhaps more for adults than children? Who knows, some might enjoy it if they can cope with the historical context. The subject matter is engaging enough and the soccer descriptions fabulous. The kids in the book are 10 though, and I'm guessing not all that many kids of that age would be confident and sophisticated enough readers to enjoy it.

Anyway, a wonderful book.

[Phil Aldis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slightly disappointed this is a memoir of Alan Ahlberg"s childhood and not the iconic Burglar Bill's. However, it does at least contain the line on page 35 "That's a nice pencil sharpener I'll have that"

[Abbey Holladay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not what I expected! This is not a picture book but a full length novel about a boys soccer team. Nor does it have anything (that I could tell) to do with Burglar Bill! I did however read it to my kids. The boys liked it fine - it was funny in parts (think Sandlot movie) but I think it is better suited to an adult with some nostalgia for or interest in post-war Britain. It is set in the year 1953 (the coronation of Queen Elizabeth is briefly discussed). This was the year my father was born and he grew up in England so I found it to be interesting.

Allan Ahlberg is a fantastic writer and and his characters are so vivid, I suppose because it was completely autobriographical. While my kids enjoyed the "action" parts of the story I enjoyed the more nostalgic musings on memory and childhood that were interspersed throughout. I enjoyed learning more about Ahlberg.

*If reading aloud to children PRE-READ the last chapter or so (Part 2). It has a disturbing incident that involves a child needing to have a limb amputated. This is apparently true story, it was quite upsetting end to an otherwise relatively light-hearted story.

[Vcmc · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating,slightly troubling memoir of a small snippet of Allan Ahlsberg’s childhood. This book is full of evocative descriptions of typical child behaviour in the fifties. The adventures sound just like the stories my older brothers told. The first part is a glorious romp telling of Allan’s adventures with his friends in a local cup football tournament. The second part is brief and painful to read as it must have been to write.
It is written to appeal to adults and children alike and manages to convey the ruggedness and sometimes cruelty of life for children then.
Sometimes the writing seems overly loose and rushed. I’m sure this is deliberate and aims to show the fleeting, chaotic nature of memories of childhood bur for me it is overdone.

[Sean Harding · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhat nostalgic view of the past in average story from Ahlberg looking back at what was in the year 1953, with the coronation. Nothing amazing here, but good story telling that will be of some interest.

[Rico Caraco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely pure and vivid memoir, plunging you right into the author's hilarious, hectic, wistful, oily childhood. Mercurial goalkeepers, benevolent ice cream sellers, haunted by fog and frolics. So so good.

[Tee · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[David Gurney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a joyful and evocative book. A pleasure to read.

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first book by Allan Alhberg and didnt really know what to expect from this childrens author. Previous books include Burgular Bill as a charactor and I wasnt sure if I was reading from the authors imagination or an autobiographical piece. Times online reviews this book as the 2nd installment of Allans autobiography for readers age 9+.

From the Midlands myself I enjoyed the local descriptions of places I know but as the mother of a 9 year old girl I think she would find the football story boring and the reminiscing of olden days dull. For me I found a lot that made me smile and anyone growing up in the 1950's would enjoy this trip down memory lane. The coronation cup gives a bunch of under 12's who didnt make the school team an opportunity to form The Malt Shovel Rovers, what a great name, and complete against all the odds. Would love to know if this really happened. Told from the childs point of view didnt really get gritty enough for me, just wetted my appetite

[Joanne Eaves]

I loved this evocative, bittersweet book. It even made me nostalgic for a chilhood not my own (being set about 25 years too early). All the preoccupations of primary school children, as I remember them, are recognisable and brilliantly brought to life. Even for someone like me, with absolutely no interest in football, it is genuinely exciting and the ending (nothing to do with football) genuinely sad. Although supposedly a children's book, I think there is more here to appeal to adults.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Got there in the end - this one took a long time to read for some reason. Wonderfully evocative picture of childhood in the 50s in an industrial Midlands town, with a football competition (I won't say more about that, except to say to that the tension mounts and somehow you are expecting a certain outcome which is not what actually happens). Appears to be autobiographical fiction, taking that as read but perhaps not?

[Rachel]

Nominated for the Carnegie Medal (UK)

[Maggie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gentle story from a better era:)

[Diane Dukes · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the nostalgic images. it is close to my era and some of the characters I am sure I have met in some ways. As they say the names are changed to protect the guilty err sorry innocent.