You're
twelve years old. Your mother's a junkie and your father might as well be dead.
You can't read or write, and you don't go to school. An average day means
sitting round a bonfire with your mates smoking drugs, or stealing cars.
Welcome to
Urban's world
.PNG) |
| Picture from the set of Urban and the Shed Crew |
Let’s start being direct
and honest: this book is one I would never have read if it wasn’t for Richard Armitage. This admission is not a first,
for me. I have already thanked his
acting projects for introducing me to readings and worlds I’d never have approached
otherwise. After this totally truthful introductive statement, I’m ready to tell you something about
this story without, I hope, spoiling your pleasure to discover more
reading the book yourself or watching the film adaptation, when it comes out.
Bernard Hare wrote “Urban Grishaw and the Shed Crew” several years ago now (it was published in 2005) mixing
compelling reportage with deeply personal memoir. His alter ego in the book is
Chop, aka Richard Armitage in the upcoming movie adaptation I mentioned before.
Leeds in the 1990s is the
setting for this story. Chop is an ex social worker who dropped his job and
retreated in a world of drinking and drugs, living at the margins of society.
It is in that unfortunate situation that he meets Urban Grimshaw and the Shed Crew, a
gang of feral kids who live stealing or as young prostitutes.