One Small Boy

by Bill Naughton

Genres: Fiction

298 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1957

About the author

William John Francis Naughton (1910-1992) was a popular ‘working class’ author and playwright who was born in Ballyhaunis, County Mayo, Ireland in June 1910 and died in early January 1992 in Ballasalla, Isle of Man. He was four years old when his family moved to Bolton, Lancashire, where, after leaving school around 1924, he worked as a weaver, coal-bagger and lorry-driver, enjoying a variety of experience and knowledge before starting to write with a rare honesty and perception about ‘ordinary’ people. Although ‘Alfie’ is the play with which he will always be associated, mostly because of the film starring Michael Caine, he was a prolific writer of quality work which included such notable plays as ‘My Flesh My Blood’, ‘All In Good Time’; plus novels, short stories and children’s books. Two other plays were made into films –‘Spring and Port Wine’, with James Mason as Rafe Crompton, and ‘The Family Way’, which starred John Mills. His work also included ‘One Small Boy’, ‘A Roof Over Your Head’, and short story collections such as ‘Late Night on Watling Street’ ‘The Bees Have Stopped Working’, and ‘The Goalkeeper's Revenge’. Among his most popular autobiographical works, well worth seeking out, are ‘On The Pig’s Back’ and ‘Saintly Billy’.

Reviews

[Vivien · Rating 4 out of 5]

So glad I stuck with the book as it didn't grab me at first. It's wonderful. The story of a time and place, of a loving Irish family who go to the North of England when the Da gets a job in the mines. All told by their youngest, Mickyeen. The author uses 'he' and 'I' throughout the book so you really get rich layers of the story. I am pretty sure there there was a bit of the author's childhood in there. At the end, my book gave themes to the book and also comparisons of other books like D H Lawrence's Sons and Lovers, Laurie Lee's Cider with Rosie and Proust's Remembrance of Things Past which was fun.