The Co-Op's Got Bananas

Reviews

‘He recalls his childhood growing up in Scotland and Cumbria in the Forties and Fifties, capturing gritty working-class life with humour and charm and painting a vivid picture of that period of social history’ ‘A cheery memoir of the Forties and Fifties… In among the rationing and the bombsites, this is really a love story between Hunter and his wife of 56 years, Margaret Forster, who died earlier this year… What sets this book apart, though, is its avoidance of cliché and its determination to reveal everything that might be revealed’  'Ken Loach might have turned all this into a powerful social film, but the avuncular Davies sprinkles in so many cheery anecdotes that the book bounces along enjoyably' ‘Eighty-year-old Davies takes a delightfully irreverent approach to his account of his youth and his days as a rookie journalist. Food was rationed, clothes were utilitarian and life could be rough, but there was fun to be had from friendships, films, skiffle and girls’  ‘Davies is a wonderful companion, leading readers down memory lane with great chumminess that will really resonate with those of a certain age. This book deserves a place on the shelf beside Alan Johnson’s This Boy as both are vivid memoirs of post-war Britain and testaments to the strength of women; in Johnson’s case his mother and sister, in Davies’s his mother and wife. Margaret Forster died this year. Her drive and intellect blaze fiercely in this book. A fitting tribute’ Expand reviews