{"product_id":"the-coops-got-bananas-9781471153419","title":"The CoOps Got Bananas","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA poignant and very personal childhood memoir of growing up in Cumbria during the Second World War and into the 1950s, from columnist Hunter Davies\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Despite the \u003cb\u003estruggle \u003c\/b\u003eto make ends meet during the tough years of \u003cb\u003ewarfare\u003c\/b\u003e in the 1940s and \u003cb\u003erationing\u003c\/b\u003e persisting until the early 1950s, life could still be sweet. Especially if you were a young boy, playing \u003cb\u003efootball \u003c\/b\u003ewith your pals, saving up to go to the\u003cb\u003e movies\u003c\/b\u003e at the weekend, and being captivated by the latest escapade of \u003cb\u003eDick Barton \u003c\/b\u003eon the radio.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Chocolate might be scarce, and \u003cb\u003ebananas would be a pipe dream\u003c\/b\u003e, but you could still have fun. In an \u003cb\u003eexcellent social memoir\u003c\/b\u003e from one of the UK's premier columnists over the past five decades, \u003cb\u003eHunter Davies captures this period beautifully\u003c\/b\u003e. His memoir of growing up in \u003cb\u003epost-war North of England\u003c\/b\u003e from 1945 onwards, amid the immense damage wrought by the \u003cb\u003eSecond World War\u003c\/b\u003e, and the dreariness\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘He recalls his childhood growing up in Scotland and Cumbria in the Forties and Fifties, \u003cb\u003ecapturing gritty working-class life with humour and charm and painting a vivid picture of that period of social history\u003c\/b\u003e’ * Press Association *\u003cbr\u003e‘\u003cb\u003eA cheery memoir of the Forties and Fifties\u003c\/b\u003e… In among the rationing and the bombsites, this is really a love story between Hunter and his wife of 56 years, Margaret Forster, who died earlier this year… W\u003cb\u003ehat sets this book apart, though, is its avoidance of cliché and its determination to reveal everything that might be revealed\u003c\/b\u003e’  * Daily Mail *\u003cbr\u003e'Ken Loach might have turned all this into a powerful social film, but the avuncular \u003cb\u003eDavies sprinkles in so many cheery anecdotes that the book bounces along enjoyably\u003c\/b\u003e' * Sunday Times *\u003cbr\u003e‘Eighty-year-old Davies takes \u003cb\u003ea delightfully irreverent approach \u003c\/b\u003eto his account of his youth and his days as a rookie journalist. Food was rationed, clothes were utilitarian and life could be rough, but there was fun to be had from friendships, films, skiffle and girls’  * Sunday Express *\u003cbr\u003e‘\u003cb\u003eDavies is a wonderful companion, leading readers down memory lane with great chumminess that will really resonate with those of a certain age\u003c\/b\u003e. This book deserves a place on the shelf beside Alan Johnson’s \u003ci\u003eThis Boy\u003c\/i\u003e as both are vivid memoirs of post-war Britain and testaments to the strength of women; in Johnson’s case his mother and sister, in Davies’s his mother and wife. Margaret Forster died this year. Her drive and intellect blaze fiercely in this book. A fitting tribute’ * Express *","brand":"Simon \u0026 Schuster Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49408686326103,"sku":"9781471153419","price":8.54,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/the-coops-got-bananas-9781471153419","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}