Dear Tom by Tom Courtenay, 0552999261, Lowest Book Price Finder

Customer Reviews:

A Life Through Letters

This is the autobiography of the actor Tom Courteney described with the help of letters written to him by his mother in the 1950's and early 1960's.
The description of poor, working-class life in Hull's docklands is good. His determination to make something of himself is well written. My only criticism is that I found it a little dull. There were too many letters to plough through and more judicious editing of these letters would have made it less tedious.

mothers love

As a northen girl I could easily connect with the early years of Toms life and the continuing living arrangements of Toms family.Although I am of a diferant generation it was interesting to learn of life in the fortys and fiftys. It is an easy to read story describing Toms life in a warm and absorbing way.
I could'nt put the book down and felt very close to all the characters.
I felt increasingly sorry for Toms mother and feel her life would have been so diferant if she were to live it now, she appeared disappointed and frustrated with her life. She was how-ever lucky to have the love of her family.
I was a little angry that Tom did not not include his family in his new life and newly found fame, it made me rather sad.
A lovely book ideal for winter nights buy it now and share it with like minded people.

honest story of a working class boy going to university

Coming from Hull and a similar background (but 15 years younger) I found it fascinating to revisit mentally places of my youth that I left 20+ years ago.

Tom Courtenay had a great desire to move on from his past into better things but wanted to retain his links with the world in which he grew up in.

The story captures what it was like to live in and around Hessle Road, a hard working class area, in the 1950 & 60's and the struggle to exist just after the war.

Home comforts are shown to be at a premium but it describes that materiality is something to be enjoyed but should not be allowed to take over your existance.

His relationship with his mother is tear jerking. She felt she was in the wrong place and position but survived this. Her plight came through in her letters to her son at University beautifully. It shows that you can come from a very different sort of life and enjoy the finer things.

It a story about everyday life that should be read and enjoyed.

Brilliantly put together as a tribute to lost talents ......

Anyone who lived in a Northern working-class household in the fifties and early sixties will identify with the picture drawn in Dear Tom.

I was moved to tears by the letters from his mother, trapped by the circumstances of her birth in a world, which in those days, for an ordinary housewife meant a daily round of dreary housework and very little else. Her letters to Tom opened up the door for her to her literary aspirations and in a small way liberated her from this.

It is a real tribute to his mother and the many like her who carried on with the daily routine that was their way of life although their spirits were aching to fly.

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