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No Boys Play Here
From the brilliantly original and critically acclaimed Sally Bayley, a literary story of working class childhood, absent or broken men and the power of literature to save and rebuild a world.
In Sally Bayley’s childhood, the men were often missing. Missing because they were drunk, or out of work, or wandering. Or missing because their behaviour meant women banned them from the house.
The man who was around for Sally was Shakespeare, and he brought men with him to fill the gaps. Sally grew up with a troupe of sad kings and lonely heroes. Her mind ran away from home with Falstaff and Prince Hal, with deceivers and mavericks and geniuses.
In her signature and extraordinary style, this is Sally’s story of her childhood – one lived with darkness snapping at heels, with real and imagined people passing through interchangeably, and with trauma a spiky memory to be skirted and avoided.
Inventive, literary and adventurous, this is a story of hard childhood and a testament to the way that great literature and its characters can guard an imagination against the bad.
In Sally Bayley’s childhood, the men were often missing. Missing because they were drunk, or out of work, or wandering. Or missing because their behaviour meant women banned them from the house.
The man who was around for Sally was Shakespeare, and he brought men with him to fill the gaps. Sally grew up with a troupe of sad kings and lonely heroes. Her mind ran away from home with Falstaff and Prince Hal, with deceivers and mavericks and geniuses.
In her signature and extraordinary style, this is Sally’s story of her childhood – one lived with darkness snapping at heels, with real and imagined people passing through interchangeably, and with trauma a spiky memory to be skirted and avoided.
Inventive, literary and adventurous, this is a story of hard childhood and a testament to the way that great literature and its characters can guard an imagination against the bad.
- GenresNonfictionMemoir
272 pages, Hardcover
First published January 21, 2021
9 people are currently reading
167 people want to read
About the author
Sally Bayley
13 books24 followersDr Sally Bayley is a tutor in English at Balliol and St. Hugh’s Colleges, Oxford and a member of the Oxford University English Faculty. She is the author of Eye Rhymes: Sylvia Plath’s Art of the Visual (Oxford University Press, 2007). Eye Rhymes was the first study of Plath’s art work in relation to her body of poetry and prose and was featured in the Sunday Times magazine, on Radio 4 and at the Royal Festival Hall alongside a series of uniquely commissioned pieces of theatre, dance, art and animation, several of which won awards.
In 2007 alongside the publication of Eye Rhymes Sally Bayley commissioned a play exploring the representation of Sylvia Plath's biography. The award winning play, I Wish I Had A Sylvia Plath, a one woman show written and performed by Elisabeth Gray, will run Off Broadway for the month of October 2010. The play will feature alongside a symposium at New York University and will include the director and producer of the forthcoming film adaptation of Plath's novel The Bell Jar: Tristine Skyer and Julia Stiles.
Source: http://www.english.ox.ac.uk/about-fac...
In 2007 alongside the publication of Eye Rhymes Sally Bayley commissioned a play exploring the representation of Sylvia Plath's biography. The award winning play, I Wish I Had A Sylvia Plath, a one woman show written and performed by Elisabeth Gray, will run Off Broadway for the month of October 2010. The play will feature alongside a symposium at New York University and will include the director and producer of the forthcoming film adaptation of Plath's novel The Bell Jar: Tristine Skyer and Julia Stiles.
Source: http://www.english.ox.ac.uk/about-fac...
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 29, 2021
This is the second novel of a trilogy in the making. Sally Bayley has managed to pull off that difficult sleight of hand, to be innovative while keeping the best of English literary tradition clearly in the picture.
I am a squeamish reader, I feel uncomfortable in the pages of overt, misery memoire. However, set out here is a breathtaking ride, on rich textured language, into a place where no boys play and a great deal else happens besides. It is in Shakespeare that we find so many answers, even to 21st century life-changing events. The familiar Shakespearean characters and Sally Bayley's reincarnations bring a visceral reality to every chapter. The fairies are in the scullery, and kings and princes walk through the cellar as the girl grows up "born as much a boy as ( she was ) a girl".
Any lover of good writing must be grateful to Bayley's Mr Drake, " who told me to read as much as I could before it was too late; . . . before I realised that history is whoever comes next through the door: dads or uncles, brothers or sisters, friends or foes."
I am a squeamish reader, I feel uncomfortable in the pages of overt, misery memoire. However, set out here is a breathtaking ride, on rich textured language, into a place where no boys play and a great deal else happens besides. It is in Shakespeare that we find so many answers, even to 21st century life-changing events. The familiar Shakespearean characters and Sally Bayley's reincarnations bring a visceral reality to every chapter. The fairies are in the scullery, and kings and princes walk through the cellar as the girl grows up "born as much a boy as ( she was ) a girl".
Any lover of good writing must be grateful to Bayley's Mr Drake, " who told me to read as much as I could before it was too late; . . . before I realised that history is whoever comes next through the door: dads or uncles, brothers or sisters, friends or foes."
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August 14, 2021An impressive collation of work, with a fascinating structure and use of rhyme. I did find it difficult to access the storyline.
Some sentences were straight forward in language and style. Many sentences were complex, difficult to follow and winding. This is not a bad thing, but it was hard for me to interpret and understand, I really struggled to pick up on subtleties of the text.
There were many references to nursery rhymes, songs, stories and plays. These references could be very confusing if you do not have any knowledge in this area. I did have some knowledge of them, but I would still say that I could only recognise when a few of these items were mentioned or used very obviously, I'm sure I missed others. I also found it difficult to follow the path of the main narrative after all of these side elements were added.
Some sentences were straight forward in language and style. Many sentences were complex, difficult to follow and winding. This is not a bad thing, but it was hard for me to interpret and understand, I really struggled to pick up on subtleties of the text.
There were many references to nursery rhymes, songs, stories and plays. These references could be very confusing if you do not have any knowledge in this area. I did have some knowledge of them, but I would still say that I could only recognise when a few of these items were mentioned or used very obviously, I'm sure I missed others. I also found it difficult to follow the path of the main narrative after all of these side elements were added.
March 24, 2021
Following on from 'Girl With Dove', 'No Boys Play Here' is the latest pseudo-memoir from Sally Bayley and like its predecessor, it's one of the most peculiar, enchanting books I have ever read.
Centred around Bayley's early-teens, 'No Boys Play Here' is part memoir, part Shakespearean play, part compilation of abstract musings ranging from the literary to the political, the fantastical to the painfully real. It's a book full of hidden depths, of layers to peel back and strange tales to uncover. Unlike most memoirs, there are few concrete answers to be found, and in that, Bayley really encapsulates the mystery and confusion of troubled childhood and adolescence.
Simply put, I think it's wonderful, and you should absolutely give it a go.
Centred around Bayley's early-teens, 'No Boys Play Here' is part memoir, part Shakespearean play, part compilation of abstract musings ranging from the literary to the political, the fantastical to the painfully real. It's a book full of hidden depths, of layers to peel back and strange tales to uncover. Unlike most memoirs, there are few concrete answers to be found, and in that, Bayley really encapsulates the mystery and confusion of troubled childhood and adolescence.
Simply put, I think it's wonderful, and you should absolutely give it a go.
February 4, 2022
Sally Bayley in this sequel to Girl With Dove, goes over the same period of her life, her childhood and youth, and as in the previous book, she writes more about literature than about what is happening to her. In this book, instead of Musings on Jane Eyre and David Copperfield, we get a lot of Shakespeare. Just as you think you might actually learn something about her brothers, or what actually happened between her mother and father, she is off talking about Henry V or Falstaff. She does grudgingly disgorge a little information in the afterword, but not enough to make up for the rest of the book. Still don’t really know why she left home, and probably never will.
April 20, 2021
This is a magical book that allows the imagination to soar, while still being grounded in the realities of the world.
With the familiarity of a stream-like consciousness and imagination, reading turns into living in another’s head.
We sail on the boat of a teenage girl, along the waves of innovative structure and the exploration of different words/meanings.
Having never read the Shakespeare plays referenced, I still understood and enjoyed the plot.
With the familiarity of a stream-like consciousness and imagination, reading turns into living in another’s head.
We sail on the boat of a teenage girl, along the waves of innovative structure and the exploration of different words/meanings.
Having never read the Shakespeare plays referenced, I still understood and enjoyed the plot.
January 13, 2025
Un bellissimo intreccio di vita e letteratura: attraverso i personaggi di finzione, l’autrice denuncia la penuria della vita dei personaggi reali e porta avanti un’inchiesta mai belligerante sulla catastrofe del nascere poveri.
November 29, 2023
I admittedly say I didn't finish it. I'm giving 3 stars (IF POSSIBLE 2,5)because I liked the core concept behind it but it's not my cup of tea. Some parts were extremely boring and confused.
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May 8, 2024Excelente ideia, péssima concretização
March 21, 2021
A refreshing, original, and at times startling read
Sally Bayley has brought her accomplished writing style and suitcase of voices with her in order to create a truly original work. The book challenges conventions of form with a playful merging of fact and fiction, of memoir and novel, and of Shakespeare’s England and not so Modern England. She has created a reading experience that leaves you in tears of laughter, rage and sorrow.
In this special book Bayley does not give you an episodic, easy to swallow, feel-good narrative. That is what is so brilliant about a book that warrants rereading after rereading. It is a mystery puzzle with its own strange tunes smuggled from Shakespeare which are then reforged in the vision of a child in crisis.
This is a book about crisis. The crisis of the child. The crisis of poverty. The crisis of men who find themselves on the hard edge of the 80’s Thatcherite boom. It is about fools and the left behind. And yet it is about much more, because sharing and talking about this book has shown the different things it has to offer: the different Shakespeare’s people experience, the different funny bits (according to whom), and a host of different tunes that haunt the lyrical work.
It is a book that asks questions and, in turn, leaves you wondering. It brings Shakespeare to life with blood and sinew. There is not a dusty costume in site, and Bayley recrafts the familiar faces of Falstaff and Hal to tell a tale of tragedy and lost ends.
I think this is a must read to anyone seeking a book with guts. This is a book of deft wisdom and a book that asks you to find out what lies under the stones unturned.
Sally Bayley has brought her accomplished writing style and suitcase of voices with her in order to create a truly original work. The book challenges conventions of form with a playful merging of fact and fiction, of memoir and novel, and of Shakespeare’s England and not so Modern England. She has created a reading experience that leaves you in tears of laughter, rage and sorrow.
In this special book Bayley does not give you an episodic, easy to swallow, feel-good narrative. That is what is so brilliant about a book that warrants rereading after rereading. It is a mystery puzzle with its own strange tunes smuggled from Shakespeare which are then reforged in the vision of a child in crisis.
This is a book about crisis. The crisis of the child. The crisis of poverty. The crisis of men who find themselves on the hard edge of the 80’s Thatcherite boom. It is about fools and the left behind. And yet it is about much more, because sharing and talking about this book has shown the different things it has to offer: the different Shakespeare’s people experience, the different funny bits (according to whom), and a host of different tunes that haunt the lyrical work.
It is a book that asks questions and, in turn, leaves you wondering. It brings Shakespeare to life with blood and sinew. There is not a dusty costume in site, and Bayley recrafts the familiar faces of Falstaff and Hal to tell a tale of tragedy and lost ends.
I think this is a must read to anyone seeking a book with guts. This is a book of deft wisdom and a book that asks you to find out what lies under the stones unturned.
January 10, 2023
Interesting book.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews