Following on from his successful best-selling memoir Wellies and Warders, Dave Ginnelly takes the reader on a truly absorbing and roller-coaster ride of incidents, characters and happenings as he walks you hand in hand through the penal system of his childhood. And what a ride it turns out to be. Born and raised in one of the poorest areas of Dewsbury, Yorkshire, the author has, by his own admission 'criminality in his blood' and, where there is a straight choice of obeying the law or disobeying it to his gain and advantage, the reader is soon left in little doubt which way the proverbial coin will fall. Dave seems to revel in the danger element such decisions involve and any reader who has aspirations of being the little angel on his shoulder soon realizes that the opponent on his opposite shoulder has many inbuilt advantages.
But this book is by no means all humour or lightness of touch; far from it, in fact, for within its pages is also a stark reality of a young boy, almost destined for a life of crime which is described with a power that is rarely found in books of this kind. This is no sanitized Porridge but, rather, a fascinating insight into how a young boy, for no obvious reason, found his way into a criminal justice system which, rather than being the sort of correctional facility intended, simply provided a perfect apprenticeship for a 'career' in crime.
But Dave’s previous book, WELLIES AND WARDERS proved a springboard for his current activities. Last year he was voted Speaker of the Year for the Women’s Institute and he became involved in DOORWAY, the charity for homeless children. He has also appeared on B B C Television regarding the brutality he and others experienced at Kirklevington, as a young offender. This sequel to his first book contains such detail and is equally entertaining. It is a book not to be missed.
But this book is by no means all humour or lightness of touch; far from it, in fact, for within its pages is also a stark reality of a young boy, almost destined for a life of crime which is described with a power that is rarely found in books of this kind. This is no sanitized Porridge but, rather, a fascinating insight into how a young boy, for no obvious reason, found his way into a criminal justice system which, rather than being the sort of correctional facility intended, simply provided a perfect apprenticeship for a 'career' in crime.
But Dave’s previous book, WELLIES AND WARDERS proved a springboard for his current activities. Last year he was voted Speaker of the Year for the Women’s Institute and he became involved in DOORWAY, the charity for homeless children. He has also appeared on B B C Television regarding the brutality he and others experienced at Kirklevington, as a young offender. This sequel to his first book contains such detail and is equally entertaining. It is a book not to be missed.
