Hessle Road Scallywags is now an official UK best seller.
Ian Newton was born Ian Achmed in a post war partially bombed out slum for the ghettoized poor called Wassand Street off Hessle Road, Hull in the United Kingdom in 1955. It was they heyday of the fishing industry in Hull and Hessle Road buzzed with activity from one end to the other. Except for the usual suspects, almost everybody had a job. And with the endless stream of trawlers landing daily, every night was Saturday night, as the old road became a playground for the hordes of fishermen flushed with money, for three days at least, until it was back to sea.
But the following decade produced a time of transition for Hessle Road and its community. The steady demise of the fishing industry saw trawlers left in the docks and fisherman join the dole queues. And what Hitler had failed to demolish with his bombers was completed by the demolition man, as street after street was torn down and many "Hessle Roaders" gradually and reluctantly moved out to the new council estates on the outskirts of the city.
Ian and three of his best pals, Terry Cox, Frankie Callis and Jimmy (Isse) Turner, grew up during these years of change. Their early lives, though fraught with poverty and hardship, were happy days filled with fun, excitement, mischief and not least a lot of dodgy deals as they tried to make a bob or two out of any trick that they could pull, be it legal or otherwise...
