The Hard Man of the Swings

A book which comes with a prefatory note that it 'is based on true events' and which itself begins with the sentences 'I don't know if I've killed may dad or not. I'm not sure a .22 bullet can kill a man.' is clearly one likely to challenge even the most mature 'older readers' whom the back cover blurb sees as its audience: Willis's compelling story will not disappoint in this respect. The focus here is on the childhood experiences of Mick, growing up in the Britain of the late 1940s and 50s, and on the increasingly tragic complications of his relationships with his parents, especially with the man eventually identified as his father. While careful readers may, perhaps, foresee the truly horrific revelations that lie in store in this relationship, their sense of shock will not be diminished when the father's machinations are finally made totally clear. From this alarming moment onwards, Mick's journey towards destruction is as desperate as it is inevitable. The occasional moments of black humour apart, this is an extremely harrowing novel, in the reading of which it is sometimes easy (or comforting?) to forget that its hero is not yet in his teens; he has a very considerable price to pay for these premature intimations of the strange ways of the adult world.