09/05/2013 Meet the Author


09/05/2013

Similar Content

Browse content similar to 09/05/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!

Transcript


LineFromTo

again and returned to Russia. It is time for Meet The Author.

:00:06.:00:14.

This study road behind me is in West London, powered by the railway line

:00:14.:00:20.

into Paddington. In the 1950s, it was longer and one of the most

:00:20.:00:25.

notorious slums in London. It is where Alan Johnson grew up. He went

:00:25.:00:30.

on to become an MP and a minister in the Blair and Brown governments. He

:00:30.:00:33.

was Home Secretary for a time. Now he has written a memoir of his

:00:33.:00:38.

childhood. It tells of growing up around here, the son of a single

:00:38.:00:43.

mother in dire poverty. We went to his south London home to Meet The

:00:43.:00:51.

Author. Alan Johnson, new crew up in West

:00:51.:00:59.

London, Ladbroke Grove, which was a slum of the worst kind. -- you grew

:00:59.:01:04.

up. These warehouses built in the middle of the 19th century. They

:01:04.:01:09.

were condemned in the 1930s. I then, the only people living there were

:01:09.:01:15.

people who could not get houses anywhere else. It was 16 people in a

:01:15.:01:21.

house. Every floor was taken by at least one family, sometimes to

:01:21.:01:28.

families to a floor. An outside toilet was common in those days.

:01:28.:01:36.

That was for all of these families. All of the doors were badly aligned.

:01:37.:01:41.

Everything was tatty. They were dreadful places, very down. The poor

:01:41.:01:46.

people who lived in the basement probably had the worst of it. Lots

:01:46.:01:52.

of people live like that at that time. This particular street I think

:01:52.:01:57.

was a lovely worse than most others. This was a pretty tough

:01:57.:02:02.

neighbourhood, too. You described an undercurrent of violence all the

:02:02.:02:06.

time. This was when the first immigrants were arriving and being

:02:06.:02:13.

put into slum housing. Quite a lot of naked racism. Yet, but what I try

:02:13.:02:19.

to do in the book is to puncture the idea that the 1950s was a golden age

:02:19.:02:25.

of innocence, when everything was happy families. It was not like that

:02:25.:02:30.

in Notting Hill. This undercurrent of violence you felt all the time.

:02:30.:02:39.

It was there. Fights outside pubs were common, women fighting, I

:02:39.:02:45.

mentioned that in the book. Fighting was part of life. You saw it in the

:02:45.:02:52.

streets very often and generally nobody intervened. If it was two

:02:52.:02:56.

people of equal size, they let it carry on. It was thought to be a

:02:56.:03:02.

rite of passage. And there was a notorious murder of a black man

:03:02.:03:06.

which took place on the corner of your street. Your mother, you

:03:06.:03:12.

believe, Saudi murder. She did. She saw the beginning of the

:03:12.:03:18.

altercation. She saw, on the opposite corner, these five Teddy

:03:18.:03:23.

boys surrounding this black guy. She shouted, leave him alone. One of the

:03:23.:03:31.

guys looked up. She recognised him and she was sure he recognised her.

:03:31.:03:38.

She came home. The next morning, the man, it was reported, had died of a

:03:38.:03:45.

stab wound. But she did not go to the police. I explain in the book

:03:45.:03:48.

that she was really worried. She thought the police would catch the

:03:48.:03:52.

murderers without her. There was a kind of law of the streets, that you

:03:52.:03:57.

did not go to the police. It is still unsolved, after all these

:03:57.:04:06.

years. He was the Stephen Lawrence of his time. Nobody has been brought

:04:06.:04:11.

to justice for his murder. Your mother was bringing up two kids on

:04:11.:04:16.

her own, because your father who is described as feckless, never held

:04:16.:04:21.

down a proper job. He was a pub pianist. He walked out when you

:04:21.:04:26.

were, what, eight? Yeah, we were quite pleased about that. Steve was

:04:26.:04:32.

able brilliant pub pianist. Anything he had he could recreate. He never

:04:33.:04:36.

learned music, which would have given him a chance of some of the

:04:36.:04:41.

big bands of the time. He would come back late at night pretty drunk,

:04:41.:04:48.

there would be violence, we could hear it from the room we slept in

:04:48.:04:58.
:04:58.:04:58.

downstairs. My sister and I shared a bedroom, and we could hear it. We

:04:58.:05:02.

put sheets over our head and tried to ignore it. He would get up at

:05:02.:05:10.

midday. We would have to put his bets on. Lily was out, my mother was

:05:10.:05:14.

out cleaning and scrubbing, trying to bring money in. My father did not

:05:14.:05:19.

contribute anything. All that he earned went on his beer and his fags

:05:19.:05:25.

and his clothes. He was fond of his clothes. The heroine of this book is

:05:25.:05:30.

evidently your sister, Linda. She comforted your mother when your

:05:30.:05:37.

father left. She brought you up when your mother died at the age of 42.

:05:37.:05:41.

She brought you up, single-handed. When the social workers try to take

:05:41.:05:51.
:05:51.:05:51.

you into care, she scares them. is an incredible character. I try to

:05:51.:05:54.

understate it because it is scarcely believable that a girl of that

:05:54.:06:00.

age... My mum was never any good with money, and she would buy things

:06:00.:06:04.

on hire purchase and they would be repossessed. She could not keep up

:06:04.:06:11.

the payments on loans and insurance policies. She could not keep up with

:06:11.:06:19.

the gas or electricity bill. Linda, from a very young age went to work

:06:19.:06:24.

in a corner shop just to pay off those debts when my mum was in

:06:24.:06:27.

hospital, so that when she came out they would not be this constant

:06:27.:06:34.

pressure of debt. For a younger of -- for a young girl of that age to

:06:34.:06:43.

do that, and with such an unassuming attitude... Everybody is shaped by

:06:43.:06:48.

their childhood. I don't think you will see a chip on my shoulder or on

:06:48.:06:55.

Linda's shoulder. We have never taken the view that... We had as

:06:55.:07:00.

little control over our childhood as David Cameron had over his. There

:07:00.:07:10.
:07:10.:07:11.

was not this feeling that it was a reverse snobbery. I did not go

:07:11.:07:16.

through that childhood to hit myself a good back story in the Labour

:07:16.:07:22.

Party. So, not that. But the struggle that women had, this was, I

:07:22.:07:32.
:07:32.:07:33.

suppose, opposed women getting the vote, pre-equal opportunities, there

:07:33.:07:40.

was not much help around. That influenced us, I think. Not wanting

:07:41.:07:46.

Download Subtitles

SRT

ASS