The boy with the topknot

By:

Sanghera, Sathnam

Publication details: London : Penguin, 2008Description: x,326pISBN:

9780141028590

Subject(s):

NLM classification:

WM 100

Summary: "It's 1979, I'm three years old, and like all breakfast times during my youth it begins with Mum combing my hair, a ritual for which I have to sit down on the second-hand, floral-patterned settee, and lean forward, like I'm presenting myself for execution." For Sathnam Sanghera, growing up in Wolverhampton in the eighties was a confusing business. On the one hand, these were the heady days of George Michael mix-tapes, Dallas on TV and, if he was lucky, the occasional Bounty Bar. On the other, there was his wardrobe of tartan smocks, his 30p-an-hour job at the local sewing factory and the ongoing challenge of how to tie the perfect top-knot. And then there was his family, whose strange and often difficult behaviour he took for granted until, at the age of twenty-four, Sathnam made a discovery that changed everything he ever thought he knew about them. Equipped with breathtaking courage and a glorious sense of humour, he embarks on a journey into their extraordinary past - from his father's harsh life in rural Punjab to the steps of the Wolverhampton Tourist Office - trying to make sense of a life lived among secrets.

List(s) this item appears in: Stenhouse Library - Recreational Reads | Barts Health - Wellness Collection | Whittington Wellbeing Room Collection | Barts Health - Reading Well - Mental Health | Stenhouse Library - South Asian Heritage Month

Holdings
Item type	Home library	Class number	Status	Date due	Barcode
Book	CEME Library (NELFT) Shelves	WM203 (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Available		NE10064
Book	Croydon Health Services Library Shelves	WM 205 SAN (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Available		CR0000009078
Book	Hirson Library (St Helier) Shelves	WM 220 (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Available		042126
Book	Newham Library (Barts Health) Shelves	WM 203 SAN (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Available		N05037
Book	Sally Howell Library (Epsom) Shelves	WM 220 (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Available		012823
Book	Stenhouse Library Fiction Collection	PZ SAN (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Issued	28/11/2023	ST00084
Book	Whipps Cross Library (Barts Health) Shelves	WM 203 SAN (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Available		T06748
Book	Whittington Health Library Shelves	WELLBEING ROOM COLLECTION - RW SAN (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Available		00010359

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"It's 1979, I'm three years old, and like all breakfast times during my youth it begins with Mum combing my hair, a ritual for which I have to sit down on the second-hand, floral-patterned settee, and lean forward, like I'm presenting myself for execution."

For Sathnam Sanghera, growing up in Wolverhampton in the eighties was a confusing business. On the one hand, these were the heady days of George Michael mix-tapes, Dallas on TV and, if he was lucky, the occasional Bounty Bar. On the other, there was his wardrobe of tartan smocks, his 30p-an-hour job at the local sewing factory and the ongoing challenge of how to tie the perfect top-knot.

And then there was his family, whose strange and often difficult behaviour he took for granted until, at the age of twenty-four, Sathnam made a discovery that changed everything he ever thought he knew about them. Equipped with breathtaking courage and a glorious sense of humour, he embarks on a journey into their extraordinary past - from his father's harsh life in rural Punjab to the steps of the Wolverhampton Tourist Office - trying to make sense of a life lived among secrets.

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