What Are Yer? Bleeder! (Paperback)

Born a haemophiliac in 1944, not long before the end of WW11 when treatment of the condition was primitive if not altogether absent, a boy had to learn his limitations and when to push through the boundaries utilising a mix of cunning, observational skills, obscenity and charm to frustrate the efforts of the adult world to contain him. Having heard at too young an age a prediction that he would not survive to see his fourteenth birthday, anger simmered below the surface to break free in awe of no-one, puzzled by many and sent away to Corley Open Air School for the first five years of his education, then persecuted in an orthopaedic children's hospital he learned to mistrust authority in general, and developed a defiant attitude, determined to prove everyone wrong in every way. Even those he loved were viewed with suspicion and every word they uttered tested, accepted or rejected as he found necessary. Three years of the home tuition he loved followed the open air school; then special school tested his endurance and improved his patience but taught him little else.