SO THEY CALL YOU PISHER! A Memoir

Much-loved children's poet and political campaigner Michael Rosen recalls the first 23 years of his life. Born in the North London suburbs, his parents Harold and Connie were both teachers who first met as teenage Communists in the Jewish East End of the 1930s. The family home was filled with stories of relatives in London, the USA and France, and of those who disappeared in Europe. Different from other children, Michael and his brother Brian grew up dreaming of a socialist revolution. Party meetings were held in the front room and summers were for communist camping holidays, but it all changed after a trip to East Germany in 1957 when his parents decided to leave 'the Party'. From that point on Michael followed his own journey of radical self-discovery - running away to Aldermaston to march against the bomb, writing and performing in experimental political theatre at Oxford University, getting arrested during the 1968 movements. The book ends with a letter to his father and the revelation of a heart-breaking family secret. The book opens with the poignant line 'About a year before I was born, my brother died; he was not yet two... My arrival into the world must have been a mixture of delight and dread.' With many intelligent inner thoughts about Shakespeare and Eng Lit, Great Expectations, the Vietnam War, the politics of culture, international connections and a postscript to his father Harold who died in 2008 and details of his Motions as a delegate in the Communist Party. An amazing slice of history and wonderful writing from the former Children's Laureate, photos.