{"product_id":"bucket-1","title":"Bucket","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Bucket\u003c\/i\u003e by Allan Ahlberg - the enthralling childhood story one of Britain's best-loved children's authors\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'My mother, who was not my mother, I see her now, her raw red cleaner's hands twisting away at her apron as she struggled to speak. Adoption was a shameful business then in many people's eyes, the babies being mostly illegitimate. Better not speak of it.'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAllan Ahlberg was adopted as a baby. In 1938 he was picked up in London by his new mother and taken back to Oldbury in the Black Country. Now one of the most successful children's book writers in the world, in \u003ci\u003eThe Bucket\u003c\/i\u003e he describes an oddly enchanted childhood lived out in an industrial town during the 1940s, in conditions which today we might describe as 'deprived'. He writes of a father in overalls smelling of wood shavings and oil, of a tough and fiercely protective mother who cries when he discovers that he is adopted, of life assurance policies ('£6 if the child dies under age 3') and fearsome bacon slicers, of half-remembered trips to his mother's sister's grave and to the bluebell woods. And of his first days at school: 'Allan could do much better. He is most inattentive and dreamy at times' (school report, December 1946).\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUsing a mix of prose and poetry, supported by new drawings by his daughter Jessica and old photographs, \u003ci\u003eThe Bucket \u003c\/i\u003eretrieves a childhood which lovers of Ahlberg's classic picturebooks \u003ci\u003eThe Baby's Catalogue, Burglar Bill \u003c\/i\u003eand\u003ci\u003e Peepo! \u003c\/i\u003emight feel they have glimpsed before but which are now exquisitely brought to life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis beautiful, exquisitely designed book, which will also appeal to fans of Gervase Phinn, Alan Bennett, Roald Dahl and Nigel Slater's \u003ci\u003eToast,\u003c\/i\u003e will be loved by generations of Ahlberg fans.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Allan Ahlberg has a string of children's classics to his name' Nicolette Jones, \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBorn in Croydon but brought up by his adopted parents in the Black Country town of Oldbury, Allan Ahlberg held jobs as a gravedigger, postman and plumber's mate before becoming a teacher. He taught for ten years before collaborating with his wife Janet on a series of much-loved, now classic children's picture books including \u003ci\u003ePeepo!,\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eBurglar Bill,\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eCops and Robbers\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eEach Peach Pear Plum\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e, Woof!, Heard it in the Playground, Please Mrs Butler, The Boyhood of Burglar Bill, The Pencil, Friendly Matches, The Improbable Cat, Goldilocks, My Brother's Ghost, The Mighty Slide, Collected Poems, The Boy, the Wolf, the Sheep and the Lettuce \u003c\/i\u003eand\u003ci\u003e The Ha Ha Bonk Book.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Penguin Books Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54221705118040,"sku":"9780241965665","price":18.5,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/files\/9780241965665.jpg?v=1764666936","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/bucket-1","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}