It was on a Sunday night in 1928 that Billy Hopkins made his first appearance. Billy's tenement home on the outskirts of Manchester would be considered a slum today, but he lived there happily with his large Catholic family, hatching moneymaking schemes. When war came, Billy was evacuated to Blackpool. There he lived on a starvation diet while his own rations went to feed his landlady's children – I might as well be in Strangeways! But even the cruel blows that were dealt to the family on his return to Manchester would not destroy Billy's fighting spirit – or his sense of humour. Nostalgic, sad and funny, the bestseller *Our Kid* recalls an upbringing and an environment now vanished.
