A Real Gem

A Load Of Old Tripe by Gervase Phinn is a most delightful children’s historical novel and perfect for ten years and over. Whatever your age, this is another gem from Gervase Phinn.

The story is set in 1957 as we follow Jimmy who’s eleven and his friends Micky and Iggy.

Told in a wonderfully down-to-earth style and with much humour, we follow Jimmy as he prepares for his eleven plus.

Jimmy is a likable lad and a good friend to Iggy who is clever but has a poor home life and is a social misfit. We drop in on their class as they have various activities including a trip to Whitby.

Jimmy is an ordinary lad who gets into scrapes – dropping the tripe for his dad’s tea, and eating a whole coffee and walnut cake to name but a couple.

The whole book is very charming. I did have a favourite chapter – where the family look after Buster the dog who finds a pet rabbit – I was literally laughing out loud at the end of the chapter – it was totally unexpected and easy to picture the scenes with Gervase Phinn’s words.

A Load Of Old Tripe is wonderfully entertaining, as are all Gervase Phinn’s books.

JULIA WILSON