Please, Mister Postman

by Alan Johnson

In July 1969, while the Rolling Stones played a free concert in Hyde Park, Alan Johnson and his young family left West London to start a new life. The Britwell Estate in Slough, apparently notorious among the locals, in fact came as a blessed relief after the tensions of Notting Hill, and the local community welcomed them with open arms.

Alan had become a postman the previous year, and in order to support his growing family took on every bit of overtime he could, often working twelve-hour shifts six days a week. It was hard work, but not without its compensations – the crafty fag snatched in a country lane, the farmer’s wife offering a hearty breakfast and even the mysterious lady on Glebe Road who appeared daily, topless, at her window as the postman passed by…

Please, Mister Postman paints a vivid picture of England in the 1970s, where no celebration was complete without a Party Seven of Watney’s Red Barrel, smoking was the norm rather than the exception, and Sunday lunchtime was about beer, bingo and cribbage. But as Alan’s life appears to be settling down and his career in the Union of Postal Workers begins to take off, his close-knit family is struck once again by tragedy…

Moving, hilarious and unforgettable, Please, Mister Postman is another astonishing book from the award-winning author of This Boy.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Politics, Autobiography, Memoir, Book Club, British Literature

295 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 17, 2014

About the author

Alan Arthur Johnson (born 17 May 1950) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for the Home Department from 2009 to 2010 and Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2010 to 2011. A member of the Labour Party, Johnson served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hull West and Hessle from 1997 to 2017.

Reviews

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alan Johnson is a UK Labour politician - in 2009/10 he was Home Secretary in Gordon Brown's government.

He had a very tough childhood, described brilliantly in his earlier biography This Boy . In this second part of his biography he describes his marriage and family, his life as a postman and his rise through the ranks of post office union, as a union rep. I found his description of the post office union, the friends he made there, and the politics of the union, interesting. I also liked his description of his life in Slough in the 1970s. He has a wonderfully observant eye for everything going on around him, and thus the ability to light up pretty well anything he chooses to write about. I also felt I really learnt a bit about what it was like to be a postman and a union rep - and that was good too.

Herewith two of my favourite extracts from the book...

"Ernie was the only person I've ever known who spoke cockney rhyming slang completely naturally. I may have been a Londoner through and through but I was in west London, not east, and the cockney lingo could be confusing, not least because it generally uses two words to represent one, and it is the second word, the one that is often not spoken, that rhymes. So those dazzling teeth were Hampsteads (Hampstead Heath), a piece of fish would be a Lillian (Lillian Gish) and chips Staffords (Stafford Cripps). The newpaper, or linen (linen draper), was paid for with coins from Ernie's sky (sky rocket - pocket). Sometimes rhyme begat rhyme so that a trail had to be followed to get to the source. Thus your backside could be either your Aris or your bottle, because the rhyming slang for arse was bottle and glass, and for bottle it was Aristotle, or Aris for short."

And when he was working as a postman in the countryside....

"On the odd occasion we'd give a customer a lift into Burnham, seating him or her precariously in the back of the van with the parcels... It's said that when the writer and bon vivant Jeffrey Bernard exiled himself to the Devon countryside for a few years, he'd send a letter to himself every day, so that when the postman called to deliver it he could hitch a life to the pub. Rural transport for the price of a stamp."

Alan Johnson is definitely a good bloke, and I like good blokes. I hope that this book is followed up with a third part to his biography.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book but as others have commented, not as good as This Boy... it does get a bit slow in parts and feels rather rushed at the end, but Alan Johnson always seems to write openly and honestly about his life. I'm looking forward to reading the final book of the three...

[Bettie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bettie's Books

[Maggie Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alan Johnson has always come across to me as one of the few politicians who understand what life is really like for ordinary people. This second volume of his memoirs begins with him and his family leaving working-class west London to head for the Britwell council estate in Slough, 30 miles away. He was a very young husband and father, only nineteen years old. He and his wife Judy brought up their three children in Slough on his not very lavish pay as a postman.

I found the book a little dry in places, where he goes into detail about trade union and political organization, but overall it was a good read and easy to read. Like many other working-class people, he educated himself by extensive reading and discussions with all manner of different people. Like everyone, he and his family experienced joys, sadness and loss. I found the book to be at its strongest when he was writing about the latter. There's lots of fun in it too, though, and some astute observations on people he's met along the way. He's an appreciative man, enjoying the world around him and giving credit where it's due.

It's also a picture of the 1960s. For example, he remembers when we all thought having a bottle of Mateus Rose with a meal out was the height of sophistication. Then we took the bottle home and made a lamp out of it. Wonder how many of those there are still are in bedrooms around the country!

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting autobiography detailing his years starting as postman until his split with his wife, where they move from west London to Slough and begin their new life together and turmoil of his sister.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Second volume of Johnson's autobiography focuses on his postal and at greater length postal union career. Fascinating as a piece of social history it also unwittingly portrays Johnson as someone only in touch with normal life as experienced by people over the age of 50 or in still unionised public services

[Matthew Purvis · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent read. Warm, affectionate, honest and authentic. I enjoyed this very much. In an age where politicians are perceived to have had no real life experience, Alan Johnson reminds us this is not so. Putting on record his working class background is a welcome additional to political memoir

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up in the library because an elderly card-carrying Labour party member Brexiteer of my acquaintance has long been insistent that Alan Johnson was the answer to the question which the membership chose instead to answer with Jeremy Corbyn. And because I'd heard that he was a cut above the usual political memoirist in terms of the quality of his writing.

What I didn't realise until I was some way into the book was that it is actually the second of three memoirs he has written and that quite possibly I had missed the most interesting part of his story - how after his mother had died when he was just 13, his 16 year-old sister effectively 'adopted' him and raised him herself to keep him out of the care system.

That said, the first half of this book, with its account of working class life at the end of 1960s, provided an interesting counterpoint to the memoirs of those from more wealthy, or more bohemian, backgrounds, growing up around the same time. A world where marrying and having children at the age of 17 - and a year into your first real job - was still seen as well within the bounds of normal behaviour. And it is striking that everyone seems to be drinking and smoking all the time (with occasionally rather tragic consequences)

Where the book loses its way, or at least where he loses me as a reader, is his more detailed account of his involvement in the postal workers' trade union. While it is passingly interesting to think that in the really not-too-distant past, such roles were of real significance (I'm in probably a small minority of my generation in being a member of a trade union, and I would struggle to name any of the union officials at all) you probably have to have been there, or else have some deep interest in the 1970s trade union movement, to find his blow-by-blow accounts of the various disputes worth your time. I'll probably still go back and read the first book, though I might give the third part of the trilogy a miss...

[Wendy Greenberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really enjoyed volume 2 of Johnson's biography. Liked it less than first volume only because it covers different period of life and as a result is more industrial relations with a personal backdrop. Fascinating time politically and a great reminder of trade union movement. Also a reminder of council housing pre Thatcher.
I love the writing style which has a brilliantly storytelling style on the original timeline tracks rather than laying emphasis on events that were only significant with benefit of hindsight.

[Clive Grewcock · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read 'This Boy' a few years ago and crikey what a book. I was so impressed I resolved not to read the sequel, convinced it would be a disappointment. However, I borrowed 'Please Mr Postman' for one of my Home Library Service customers and thought I may as well read it before I returned it. On the plus side Johnson always writes well, there are flashes of the humour and pathos that made 'This Boy' stand out, but (and this is a big but) there is far too much arcane and tedious detail about how the post is sorted, too much listing of endless colleagues and some quite dull stuff about the postal workers Trade Union. In short the literary equivalent of a band's tricky second album!
Maybe the final book in the trilogy will be the reward for wading through this treacle.

[David Highton · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second volume of Johnson’s autobiography sees him finish the book a very different man to how he starts it. A 19 year old newly married man with a stepchild and first child moves to Slough as a postman, and 20 years later he is a senior officer in the Union of Communication Workers and has out grown the marriage. I found the social history of the postman years a little more interesting than the union machinations but overall a good book. I am undecided whther to follow him into the political firmament in Volume 3

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

From a tough background Alan Johnson describes his time working for the Post Office and his growing interest in politics. Eventually he became branch chairman of the UCW in Slough before being elected to the National Executive. It's an honest portrayal of his life living on the Britwell Estate with his wife and young family. Politically the 70's were a time of great change and I can well remember some of the events he recounts. Eventually he rose through the ranks of the Labour Party to have several cabinet posts.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second of Alan Johnson's autobiography (like the others, the title comes from his love of The Beatles) covers his life from Christmas 1967 to the late-80s when Johnson was married to his first wife, Judy. She was slightly older - they married when Johnson was just 18. It focuses on his time as a postman and his later activities in the Union of Communication Workers until his split from Judy. Some of the political parts were a little dry, but I very much enjoyed the social history aspects, and will definitely read the next part at some stage.

[Michelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Really not what I thought this would be. Started off well, but then delved too much into the unions and the political side of being a postman. Not for me, I was expecting more funny stories. I really skim read the second half of this.

[Debra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much more enjoyable than I’d anticipated. Loved the social history - music, fashion and UK politics. My living memory.

[Craig French · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good. Not as good as the first volume. But very good. Enjoyable discussion of his trade union work. This is an important message "A bond of trust... between manager and trade-union representative... is by far the most important element of industrial relations".

It also has moving personal discussion - touching on grief and alcoholism.

[Christine Parkinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second book about Alan Johnson’s life. It covers the period of him starting work as a postman and how he ends up working for the union. Although it was interesting, I didn’t enjoy it as much as his first book, however I will continue and read his next book as I think if will be interesting to see how he becomes a politician. I give this book 3 and a half stars.

[Hannah Polley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well this will teach me to look at books properly before I pick them up at the station exchange box. I only looked at the title of this book and I thought it would be mildly interesting and I didn't clock the author until later on.

The best way to describe this book is that it would be great for the post office enthusiast. This is just 300 pages of how the post office works and trade unions in the 60s & 70s.

Very dull and doesn't even cover his time as a politician so I expect he has or will write a separate book about that.

I have given this two stars as I do think other people could find this interesting. But not me.

[Christine · Rating 2 out of 5]

BBC Book of the Week

In July 1969, while the Rolling Stones played a free concert in Hyde Park, future Cabinet Minister Alan Johnson and his young family left West London to start a new life. The Britwell Estate in Slough, notorious among the locals, came as a blessed relief after the tensions of London's troubled Notting Hill, and the local community welcomed them with open arms.

Alan Johnson had become a postman the previous year and, in order to support his growing family, took on every bit of overtime he could, often working twelve-hour shifts six days a week. It was hard work, but not without its compensations - the crafty fag snatched in a country lane, the farmer's wife offering a hearty breakfast and even the mysterious lady on Glebe Road who appeared daily, topless, at her window as the postman passed by.

Please, Mister Postman paints a vivid picture of England in the 1970s, where no celebration was complete without a Party Seven of Watney's Red Barrel, smoking was the norm rather than the exception, and Sunday lunchtime was about beer and bingo. But as Alan Johnson's life appears to be settling down and his career in the Union of Postal Workers begins to take off, his close-knit family is struck once again by tragedy.

Read by Alan Johnson

Producer: David Roper
A Heavy Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.



Episode 1:
Christmas 1967 and a teenage Alan Johnson is a shelf stacker at Anthony Jackson's supermarket in East Sheen. He dreams of pop stardom, but the need for money and a chance meeting at his sister's Christmas party change his life in unexpected ways.

Episode 2:
Alan Johnson participates in his first strike, and takes his first steps on a union career that would eventually lead to higher office.

Episode 3:
Alan Johnson becomes more active in his union and joins the Labour Party. But his political inspiration comes from unlikely sources - Glasgow communist Jimmy Reid and his Tory-supporting brother-in-law Mike.

Episode 4:
Juggling a rural post-round - where he gets his first view of the Home Secretary's country retreat, Dorneywood - and with a growing role in the trade union, Alan finds himself at an inevitable crossroads between the family life he had worked so hard to build and the exciting demands of political office.

Episode 5:
By 1982 Alan Johnson's union career is going from strength to strength with a position on the Executive beckoning. Work keeps him away from home and the Thatcher government at its height ensures life is tough for the union. But the biggest storm clouds transpire to be personal rather than political.

[Frank Callaghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having finished the earlier Alan Johnson book, about his childhood in London, this was a natural follow on, to explore the next part of his life: starting work, marriage and his journey through work in the Post Office. This took place mostly in Slough, and then after that, his excursion through the work of the Post Office and Communications Trade Union.
The book was interesting, containing as it does, mentions of many people with whom he worked and met that were names I recall from my younger years. Names that frequently cropped up on news bulletins and current affairs programmes, especially during the 1970s and 1980s, and the era of Thatcher, and a time of numerous trade disputes. These people whom Johnson knew were household names, and Alan Johnson met them all, spoke of them with a genuine inside knowledge, and irrespective of whether he agreed or disagreed with them, he never referred to them with ill will or malice. He always finds something good and positive to say about all the people with whom he engaged.
The descriptions of his family and close friends were the most enjoyable parts of this book, because here he talks about people who were close to him, and important in his life. Whether they were people who maybe struggled with personal issues, or who may have strayed, he always writes of them with a genuine endearment. These are the parts of the book closest in style to his first novel, and for me, the most enjoyable.
This second book, for me, never quite captures the intensity and joyful description of his first novel. Maybe trade disputes and recollections of meetings are drier stuff to write about, but despite that there was enough there to hold the interest, and it always maintained the human touch. Alan gives the impression of being somebody who holds a firm belief in right and wrong, of equality and justice, but who never loses the human touch and the appreciation of the human spirit.
So, an enjoyable book, but less warm and engaging than his first novel. But pleased to have tread it and recall all those names from the past.

[Belle · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 rating. I read this as soon as I could after reading Alan Johnson's first memoir (This Boy - which is one of the best memoirs I've had the pleasure to read.) unfortunately I didn't find this second offering as good as the first. It still had some humour, but it wasn't as funny as This Boy had been. Possibly my disappointment could also have something to do with my expectations being too high.
This was less about the people and more about the job - sometimes in a little too much detail for me, for example, when explaining which side up the envelopes had to be on a sorting office frame and how this differed between London and outside of London. Half of the book covered his work as a postman and the other half covered his work and rise within the Union.
I did find this book extremely interesting and informative, particularly because I didn't have any prior knowledge of Unions. Johnson set and retold the 70's era perfectly. I was frequently reminded of little things long forgotten from my 70's childhood. I was shocked at just how put upon (and discriminated against) women were, even as recently as the 1970s, but I was impressed that Johnson was honest about his experiences.
This book covered Johnson's life from 18-27. It was well paced and it ended well. It was obvious that a third installment will be forthcoming and I look forward to it.

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed the first part of Alan Johnson's memoirs - 'This Boy'. 'Please Mister Postman' takes over from where the first book leaves off, and details his long career in the Post Office, first as a postman, and latterly as an increasingly politicised union official. Perhaps that was the problem for me. On the whole, the book was about Johnson's developing career. He touched on the lives of his sister and family, and on his own home life, but barely. He may have written the book he wanted to, but it wasn't necessarily the book I wanted to read. A book I read willingly enough, as it was well-written and quite absorbing, but not the winner that his first volume was for me.

[Jo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really interesting commentary on life in the early 70's, would have preferred more of that and less of the detailed union politics and processes. Style of writing was too surface, felt more like a list of chronological facts facts than a flowing autobiography. Given the personal experiences touched on throughout, this felt like a big miss to me - resulting in the book having an overall sterile feel.

[Jean Aarons · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although I enjoyed the parts about his family life, I did find that the second instalment of Alan Johnson’s biography was a bit tedious. I found all the detail about postal work and then union procedure to be rather boring. His writing is a bit cliche ridden.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

From BBC Radio 4 - Book of the Week:
The former home secretary Alan Johnson's memoir, read by the author.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as This Boy, but still an unusual and moving memoir

[Robin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Readable and to a point engaging, but a life as a postman and a union rep, interesting enough to justify a novel...I don't think so.

[Yusif Mammadli · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have acquired this book from a colleague as a gift in 2018. When I started to read the book, I was hooked up immediately. This was even before I knew who Alan Johnson was (I will emphasize on this later). The book simply illustrates the life of a young man, who lost his mother and whose father had abandoned him and his sister. In pursuit of being a musician, Alan decides to work as a postman and that’s when he enters a phase in his life where there is no turning from. During the years at the post office, he gets involved in two major strikes, which gradually pushes him into politics.

While reading, since the book was really interesting, I did not even think of looking him up to see who he was, what he was doing, what profession he obtained later on in his life. But somehow, at some point, I had a feeling that he ought to be someone important. Well, forgive my ignorance, but as a person who is not really interested in politics in general, I never heard of him. Additionally, this book was a gift to me, which made me learn about someone that I did not know about. When I Googled him, I got to know that he has been UK Home Secretary in 2009/10 and is a UK Labour Politician. He had a very tough childhood, which he illustrated in his first book/biography “This Boy”.

This book is kind of continuing story of his life, starting from 1969, where he describes his marriage and family, his sister and her family (not in great detail, but enough to get an idea of how her sister lived, what kind of person she was etc.), his life as a postman, his rise in union and his increasing interest in politics.

In 1969, Alan and his family had to live in West London (due to road construction) and move in the Britwell Estate in Slough. Despite the fact that the estate was notorious among the locals, it was a relief for the Johnson family. Now they had their own house even if it was small, it was theirs nonetheless. They were welcomed in the neighbourhood, local post office accepted him happily due to shortage of staff, which Alan made use of as much as possible. He took every chance to do every overtime possible, often working twelve-hour shifts six days a week.

The part where Linda (Alan’s sister) realizes that her husband is alcoholic is really touching. After so many attempts she cannot do anything to save him and he commits suicide. This process takes about 30 pages in the book, which feels so real. Yes, I know that this is a memoir, but still writing style is what counts here. The chosen words are so in a place that you actually live the events described in the book. This and other countless events in the book are well-written and feeling is real. Hence the book paints a clear picture or even a movie of England in the 1970s.
In the event of Mike’s (Linda’s husband) death, Linda is sent the “Serenity Prayer” by somebody at
Alcoholic Anonymous where Mike was attending. I loved the message of the prayer which I share below:

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And Wisdom to know the difference.”

Well, I am a non-religious person and do not really believe in praying. However, I think this could be a motto for everyone in life. It resembles in general what I about most of the things in terms of dealing with challenges. I always want to realize or want to be aware that there some things that I can change, which I work towards them, and there are some things that I cannot change, which I should learn to accept, live with them and move on to more things that I can actually change.

[Jeff Howells · Rating 4 out of 5]

At the start of Alan Johnson’s second volume of memoirs he’s a still a teenager, but newly married, is the father of one child (albeit his wife’s from a previous relationship) with another on the way...and just about to embark on a new life as a postman. By the end he is in his late 30s, a senior Trade Union member and newly separated.
Johnson’s memoirs are without a doubt the most likeable written by a politician that I’ve read. He had a hard life as a child and it was nice to read this time around about a man making a decent fist of his life.
That’s not to say there wasn’t sadness in his life. There is a particular tragic event that effects his family - especially his heroic older sister - that he describes with sensitivity & a fair dollop of emotion.
Interestingly it wasn’t his description of his role in the unions that interested me, it was his life as an ordinary postman that was so captivating. There’s also a sense of nostalgia, writing about a council estate in the 70s & 80s struck a cord with my own upbringing.
Politics is still to enter his life in a big way (that’s for the next volume) but it did strike me when he was gave his opinion of Tony Benn (“I distrusted the cult of personality that was being built around him...the venom directed by his supporters at figures such as Healey, Callaghan, Barbara Castle and... [his] refusal to lift a finger against this character assassination seemed to me to be the real betrayal”) he could have been describing Jeremy Corbyn today.

[Fabrice Conchon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second part of the story of the life of (Labour politician)Alan Johnson. After the destitute childhood in the slums of north Kensington in the 50ies / 60ies, here is the life as a young adult, married man, father and postman during the 70ies and 80ies.

The book is less terrifying than the first part (called This boy, each book has a title of the song of the Beatles) but still remain excellent. This is a fascinating piece of social history that depicts incredibly vividly the life and people's mind frame in the 70ies and the 80ies. The deep sense of solidarity among the people from the working class (shown when he decides not to take up the possibility offered by the Thatcher's government to buy the council house you live in), the dire problems of alcoholism among this same working class, all the millions of little details than he gives (the improvement brought by the rubber that keep together the letters being delivered) etc etc...

In addition to that, Johnson is a great story teller, we really empathise with him and the drama he has been confronted to during his life (the death of his brother in law above all). He depicts himself as a profoundly humanistic character very sympathetic (not sure if this is true but that is the impression that come out of the book) and we really feel like reading the third part. A really gem...