Breadboy: Teenage Kicks and Tatey Bread - What Paperboy Did Next

by Tony Macaulay

It s Belfast, 1977. The King is dead and a 14-year-old boy wearing Denim aftershave has just been appointed breadboy in the last Ormo Mini-Shop in the world, delivering bread to the residents of the Upper Shankill on Saturday mornings. He s all grown up now, so he is, and nearly shaving.
The Bee Gees fill the airwaves, everyone is in love with Princess Leia, and Breadboy s love of peace and pets is soon rivalled by his interest in parallel universes and punk . . . and girls, especially Judy Carlton who sits opposite him in chemistry. Sooner or later, Breadboy is sure they ll become a proper couple like Paul and Linda, and Judy will be his girl.

There are rivals at school and dangers on the streets, but Breadboy is hopeful, so he is. He is a good Breadboy. He delivers.

As does Tony Macaulay, in this delightful sequel to the critically acclaimed Paperboy.

Genres: Biography, Humor, Coming Of Age, Memoir, Irish Literature

271 pages, Paperback

First published March 14, 2013

About the author

Dr. Tony Macaulay is a bestselling author, leadership consultant, peacebuilder, broadcaster and suicide prevention advocate from Northern Ireland. He was raised at the top of the Shankill Road in West Belfast at the start of thirty-five years of “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland, an experience that has shaped his life. He has spent the past 35 years working to build peace and reconciliation at home and abroad, working with hundreds of youth and community groups to break down barriers of mistrust, hatred and division. He has applied his experience and learning into leadership development and management of change and transition in many voluntary, public and private sector organisations.

His memoirs of growing up in Belfast during the Troubles, Paperboy (HarperCollins 2011), Breadboy (Blackstaff Press, 2013) and All Growed Up (Blackstaff Press, 2014), have been critically acclaimed bestsellers in Ireland. His autobiography Little House on the Peaceline (Blackstaff Press, 2017, 2nd edition, so it is, 2022) tells the story of how he lived and worked on the peaceline in Belfast in the 1980s.

His debut novel Belfast Gate (so it is, 2019) is a satirical comedy drama set in 2019 about a group of Catholic and Protestant women who start a campaign to take down Belfast’s 50 year old peace walls. The novel was book of the week in the Irish News.

Paperboy was adapted into a hit musical by Andrew Doyle & Duke Special at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast in 2018 and 2019. In the summer of 2022 the same team produced a musical adaptation of the sequel, Breadboy, once again to sell out audiences in the Lyric Theatre in Belfast.

Tony has performed book readings at a range of respected literary festivals including: Aspects Literature Festival, Edinburgh Book Fringe, Belfast Book Festival, Dublin Book Festival, 4 Corners Festival and Féile an Phobail. He is now a regular speaker on Northern Ireland, peace building and creative writing at universities and colleges in Europe and the USA. He has given talks at Lehigh University and DeSales University in Pennsylvania, the University of Denver, Colorado, the University of Notre Dame and Goshen College in Indiana and Pepperdine University, University of California, Irvine, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles and California State University, Dominguez Hills in California.

In 2012 the W.B. Yeats Society of New York invited Tony to present a reading of Paperboy in the National Arts Club as part of the 1st Irish Festival. In 2013 and 2014 he performed a series of readings from his books at the New York Irish Center as part of the 1st Irish Festival and returned to the National Arts Club in New York to preview ‘Little House on the Peace Line’ in 2016.

As a prominent writer, journalist and broadcaster, Tony has contributed to NVTV, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 2, Downtown Radio and BBC Radio Ulster. He has also written for the Belfast Telegraph, the newspaper he once delivered.

In 2014 Tony was asked to present the Duke of Edinburgh Gold Awards to young people from Northern Ireland on behalf of the Earl of Wessex. In 2016 Tony was asked to present the Duke of Edinburgh Gold Awards to young people from Northern Ireland on behalf of HRH The Duke of Edinburgh. In 2016 Tony’s first three books were translated into Braille by prisoners in the Braille Unit in Maghaberry Prison. In 2019 Tony was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Ulster University for services to literature and peace building at home and abroad.

Tony coaches a youth empowerment project in the slums in Kampala, Uganda and is on the steering group developing a Rwanda Peace & Reconciliation Centre. It was on a visit to Kigali in 2017 that he met Juvens Nsabimana co-author of his latest book Kill the Devil: A Love Story from Rwanda. Tony explains:

'The day I met Juvens in Kigali I had been visiting his country to learn about the incredible work of reconciliation since the genocide in 1994, when a million people were killed in

Reviews

[Gijs Grob · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Breadboy' is a strongly autobiographical novel, in which Tony Macaulay recollects his years as a teenager in Belfast, Northern Ireland, 1977-1979. The novel is the follow-up of 'Paperboy', but can easily be read on its own.

Macaulay writes as if he's still 14-16, eschewing any hint of looking back, and preserving the naivety that comes with that age. Thus we strongly keep watching the events through the eyes of a child. This stylistic device keeps the book a pleasant read.

'Breadboy' is an easy and lighthearted read, and amusing throughout. Macaulay paints a vivid portrait of how it was to be young in the poor, protestant Shankill district in West-Belfast in the late seventies. As can be expected, his chapters are colored by the music of ABBA, Saturday Night Fever, Grease and Punk.

Of course, the Troubles are never far away, and in one chapter come very close indeed. But most of the book is devoted to the typical problems of a teenage boy, and thus enjoyable for readers everywhere. Nevertheless, I'd recommend this book especially to everyone who has ever visited Belfast.

[Apratim Mukherjee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its a sequel to the laugh riot Paperboy.But a lot of things are missing.The humour is gone.The "f" word is being used more prominently.Tony has become sensible so many a times the story becomes very boring.Its not a perfect sequel but may be a perfect prequel to the next book.As a book,its readable and quite funny.But until the whole series is read,it would be unjustified to give a detailed review.
I award four stars to this book.

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

if u liked derry girls pls read this ! also my dad went to school w the author :) a nice window into my dad’s upbringing

[SundayAtDusk · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the sequel memoir of Paperboy: An Enchanting True Story of a Belfast Paperboy Coming to Terms with the Troubles, a book I thought was so funny and so charming. This second memoir takes up right where the first one left off. Tony Macaulay is now 14 years old and working Saturdays on a bread truck, which is like a bakery shop on wheels. Young Tony is going through typical teenage boy angst, as well as some non-typical anxiety caused by living in 1970's Belfast.

I don't know for sure, but I think reliving that time period badly affected the author while writing this book. The writing in this second memoir was nowhere near as good as the writing in the first memoir. Mr. Macaulay also stopped using asterisks while using a famous obscene word, as he used in the first book, and included much more obscenity. This probably made the book more realistic, but did nothing for its charm.

Of course, life was becoming much more difficult for the teenaged Tony, not to mention violent; but even when the author was writing about funny things in this book, it just wasn't funny. He also included a story about why he broke up with his first girlfriend, Sharon Burgess, that did not match the break-up story in the first book! (One wonders if possibly Sharon Burgess read the first book and contacted the author, warning him he better get their break-up story straight in the second book? :)

Yes, Breadboy was turning out to be a bit of a stale read. That is, until the 70% location of the Kindle version. For suddenly, at about the 70% location of the story, the writing started sounding like it was written by the author who wrote the first book! It became funny and touching and just written a whole lot better. That last 30% made me love this second book almost as much as the first.

Moreover, this second memoir had a particularly poignant part at the end where young Tony is dancing to I Will Survive at the Westy Disco, and hoping everyone he knew had a long future. He says: "I wanted all of us to survive. I didn't want anyone to joining the paramilitaries or start drinking too much or get cancer. I didn't want anyone to have bad nerves or get shot in the chest at their front door or get blown to pieces at the shops. I wanted us all to stay alive forever." The wishful words of the only pacifist paperboy and breadboy in 1970's Belfast, Northern Ireland.

[David Campton · Rating 4 out of 5]

The sequel to the hit book "Paperboy" -both of them having also been turned into musicals with music by Duke Special, with this one focusing on Tony's early teenage years, including the inevitable emotional turmoil. It's taken me a while to get around to this (there are a few more in the series by now), and whilst it also took me longer than usual to read, I suspect that this is more about my state of mind than the book, as I probably enjoyed this one more than the first. Tony has a more relaxed storytelling style in this one, with fewer of the "so it is" sign-offs that punctuated the first one in an attempt to root it in working class Protestant west Belfast. Those credentials are firmly established and so the story flows more freely. Saying that it is low-level, chronological autobiography with few majorly dramatic moments around which the story hinges... indeed the one major "Troubles-related" incident (no spoilers), bringing the full horrors of those years straight to the Macaulay family's doorstep, is somewhat downplayed, although that is perhaps true of many events in our traumatised communities. What I did relate to however, was the pop culture references. I was perhaps too young (being a couple of years younger than Tony) to fully appreciate the references in the first book... but with this one, the references to Saturday Night Fever, Grease, Blondie and Jilted John were right at my point of connection with wider pop culture... I look forward to reading the next episodes.

[T H · Rating 3 out of 5]

The tales of being the only peace loving teenager in the Upper Shankill are beguiling
The Westie disco, BRA with its rugby playing schoolboys and the dedicated orange bread servers brought back many memories for me
Good in parts but ultimately underwhelming

[Alexis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I preferred this to Paperboy, maybe because Tony is older and more aware. Very funny and I followed the dialogue in my head in my auntie's and uncles Ballygomartin voices. So many Shankill words and phrases reminding me of my family.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed. I love his voice and the glimpse into Belfast's past. Looking forward to reading the next one.

[Sandy Murrah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book just as much as The Paperboy, and now I can’t wait to read his next book, All Growed Up!

[Steph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Had to read this book for my book club but upon finishing this book I will definitely be looking up his other books. I loved it lots.
So many funny moments and anecdotes and funny but oh so truthful sayings that remind me of my childhood.
I didn't grow up in Belfast but 20 miles away,childhood similar in so many ways,growing up among the violence and the troubles.

Some really funny quotes that I laughed out loud at. Really easy & quick to read. Well deserving 5 stars.

[Jason Blean · Rating 5 out of 5]

If Paperboy was a film it might be rated 15. Bread Boy would be, I think, an 18. If Paperboy was black and white TV, then Bread Boy is full-on colour with Dolby stereo. Tony delivers again with this totally engrossing page-turner of a candid account of a teenager coming of age in West and North Belfast in the late 1970s. No attempt is made to airbrush out any of the many deeply unpleasant aspects of life in this city when The Troubles were in full swing. Tony calls a spade a spade, telling things exactly as they were and totally enters into his character as a teenager, giving perspective, emotion and detail (if I had one tiny criticism it would be that some of the descriptive details can be repetitive and a bit laboured) to each experience described with a masterful use of the Belfast vernacular and the aplomb of an accomplished writer. The result is you enter into Tony's world completely on the emotional rollercoaster of romances, characters, shootings, romances, fights, angst and teenage dreams, so hard to beat. Again, Tony describes The Troubles perfectly, from pressures on young people to join paramilitaries and the Orange Order, and the unchallenged bias of sectarianism to the dysfunctional world which those of us who lived in Northern Ireland during The Troubles inhabited. The self-deprecating wit was also masterful and made me laugh out loud several times. The situations he describes are often hilarious; the scenarios are vivid and colourful, giving the reader a true insight into something rarely shown on the media or the source of stories and films: Loyalist West Belfast. The warmth and humanity of folk on the Shankill comes across again and again despite the difficulty of their circumstances. People like me from Belfast or Northern Ireland who know the places mentioned in the book will relate to the language and stories I think easily; those of a certain age will enjoy the nostalgia of being taken back to the enjoyable sights and sounds of that time. But anyone who has ever been a teenager will relate to Tony's trials so entertainingly told of coming to terms with peer pressure, puberty, professional duties for the first time and the need for public acclaim. Ultimately this is a completely heartwarming story of life in a part of the world notorious for hard hearts, violence and sectarianism, all the more remarkable for the fact that it's true. I haven't enjoyed reading a book as much for years. Stickin'out. Beezer. Dead on. The Craic is 90. Goes down well, like a warm Veda wi melted butter, so it does.

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

I must be pretty close to Tony in age and having spent my formative years in East Belfast I remember many of the places in the city which make a colourful backdrop to Breadboy. While Tony was mixing with girls at BRA, I was attending an all boys school in Dundonald and I lived in Tullycarnet which at the time seemed new and clean compared to the Woodstock where my family had moved from. Despite these minor differences I too danced to Abba, The Rats and others and I might have shared a darkened cinema with Tony at the ABC while we both developed a crush on Olivia Newton John. Breadboy brought all my young years flooding back and while Tony was a Jet I played three characters in Smike and even got to sing as Mr Snawley.
Alas I was to wait a few more years than Tony to find my girl, together for 30 yrs now, but I had a few heartbreaks so I know unrequited love.
With such nostalgia colouring my judgement I can only say that Breadboy was a very fine book and I would have enjoyed it even if I didn't share the backdrop of Belfast in the late 70's.
Breadboy has just the right touch of wit and pathos and helps the reader understand the type of dry humour needed to survive The Troubles.
Very few of us escaped those dark days without some damage to our psyche and quite a few suffered trauma and loss which may never heal. Breadboy gives us life, and death, in a young mans life without trying to sell us any kind of political or cultural bias. The fact is that in Belfast this was how life happened on both sides of the community.
All in all I was spellbound by the nostalgia and found it hard to drag myself back to the present day. Closing the covers of this book for the last time seemed like locking away my 14 year old self in a time and place I will always cherish but can never recapture.
Thank you Tony inviting me to the Westie disco and sharing your friends and family.
I had a great time, So I did.

[Patti · Rating 5 out of 5]

I get a real kick out of Tony Macaulay's comic memoirs. Breadboy takes up where his first book Paperboy had left off. Tony is a teenager in Belfast during The Troubles who has recently given up his paper route in order to work in an Ormo Mini Shop, a sort of bread store in a truck making deliveries every Saturday. Tony is just a few years older than me, and we share a love of a lot of the same pop culture. When he writes of ABBA, Dr. Who, Star Wars, Saturday Night Fever, Grease, and the joy of the rapidly emerging electronics craze of the late 1970s I really feel his fanboy passion since I was over on the other side of the Atlantic loving those exact same things. The fact that we shared certain parts of our childhood makes me even more interested in how different our lives really were.

Tony lived on the Shankhill Road in a working class Protestant neighborhood, right in the heart of the conflict. He witnessed bombings and murders, yet he writes with great fondness of so many happy memories. He pokes gentle fun at his failed attempts to romance an unattainable beauty while trying to walk the fine line between being cool and being the only pacifist "good livin" (born again Christian) teenager in west Belfast. There were bigger fish to fry than solving sectarian violence. Tony had to get the perfect Travolta pompadour and the right clothes and cologne to catch the lovely Judy's interest. He had to learn animal husbandry so as to stop the rapid population growth in the pet cemetery in his garden. Figuring out where he fell on the socio-political and religious spectrum was important, sure, but it paled in comparison to just trying to figure out how to survive the teen years with a minimum of embarrassment and a steady girlfriend.

[Elena · Rating 2 out of 5]

A pleasant read, though by no means a 'masterpiece'. A memoir that may be worth reading for people who have an interest in Northern Ireland and its recent history (AKA The Troubles). What is perhaps most unusual about the book is that it is written by and from the viewpoint of a Protestant/unionist: my impression is that fiction on Northern Ireland is mostly written by and on Catholics/nationalists. Not only this: the author is from the Upper Shankill, one of the centers of working-class Loyalism: even more unusual as a setting. This is why I found it interesting. However, as I mentioned, it is by no means a piece of great literature. I was at a meet-the-author event a while ago, and the audience (all from Belfast) seemed very happy of having found a book that talked about their childhood, the streets they knew, the food they ate, the music that was popular back then. It's that kind of book. So, for Northern Ireland aficionados (such as myself, for my sins), or for Northern IrISH.
Ah, I was forgetting: I assume the language used in the book could be quite amusing, so it could, for people who are not familiar with Northern Irish slang and strange turns of phrase. It's full of 'yous' and 'youseins' and 'themns, so it is, and of funny expressions like 'you big fruit!'. All this is normal for me by now, so it is.

[Frances · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a thoroughly enjoyable sequel to "Paperboy". Tony is now 15 and has a slightly more mature voice as he depicts life in the Shankill in the late 1970's. I found some of his narrative incredibly funny, in particular passages such as "I had never seen an Orange parade on 'The Waltons' but having said that I was convinced that John Boy and his family were Protestants because they looked very like people from Ballymena ..." and "I was disappointed to discover they were called Siobhan and Sinead and so they were clearly not Presbyterians". Macaulay manages to give a fair and unbiased depiction of life in Belfast at the time, showing signs of the peace-maker that he was later to become. The humour in the book will definitely appeal to anyone from Northern Ireland, or to those who have links to "Our Wee Country".

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great sequel to paper boy he really got the flow of this book right it witty and full of Northern Ireland co-localisms but is very entertaining and a trip down memory lane for those in their 40s.

Set in the Shankhill between 1977 - 1979 it tell the next chapter in Tony's career path which didn't make his CV as a bread boy on the last ormo mini van. As always it not all work and no play there the Westy youth club, after shave and girls.

[Nicola · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was so excited to get my hands on this book after having enjoyed 'Paperboy' so much, and it didn't disappoint. Leaving off where Paperboy ended, Teenage Kicks continues to tell the story of Tonys teenage years, looking at popular culture and typical teenage dilema's set against a backdrop of The Troubles, it makes a fantastic read. Once again I am left longing for more. I just cannot get enough of these stories!

[Charlotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed it, so I did. Funny and heartwarming throughout. Perhaps I enjoyed Paperboy just a little more...Bread Boy felt just a little repetitive at times. A fascinating insight into quite a dark period of Belfast's recent history. I was left wondering if there is to be a third book, as I would definitely read a third. See if he turned out to be the catch that all the wee girls expected him to be!

[Bill Shaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those of a certain vintage this will cause memories - good & bad - to come flooding back, for those who weren't around at the time (late 70's) it provides a wonderful - & funny (often hilarious) insight into life in Belfast during the Troubles...

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this even more than Paperboy. Once again Tony Macaulay took me right back to my childhood. Hope there is more to come!

[Desmond Beddoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Authentic, funny and poignant.