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Poking Seaweed with a Stick and Running Away from the Smell

by Alison Whitelock

ISBN: 9781846971150
Imprint: Polygon
Publication Date: Mar 2009
Format: Paperback
Price: £8.99
Stock Status: in stock

’Charmingly cynical,’ -The Scottish Review of Books

’A hilarious, no-misery memoir,’ - The Scotsman

’Candid and rhythmic...humour is her safeguard against the terrible things she tells us,’ - Sunday Herald

'Joyous!' - Julie, Waterstones Lancaster

Alison Whitelock dreamed of shooting her father with a sawn-off shotgun. Her brother planned to use the longest knife in the cutlery drawer, and her mother tried to poison him with out-of-date tranquilisers. And he deserved it.

This wee book is a bittersweet account of growing up in Scotland in the strange and brutal kingdom we call home. But Poking Seaweed with a Stick is anything but a tale of childhood suffering. With a whimsical disregard for all that’s proper, Alison Whitelock tells her story not as an adult remembering her past, but as the child who experienced ‘all that shite’ first hand. Like the day her ponies Rusty and Silver got carted off to the glue factory; and the day her school pal Fiona caught a brain tumour and died; not to mention the terrible shame of the blue-tit collage and the porridge bowl at Brownie camp.

Poking Seaweed with a Stick and Running Away from the Smell is Alison’s first book. Her Da hopes it will be her last.

Born and bred in Scotland, Alison Whitelock left behind the mountains and rivers and ballads for London then Australia. A fan of Patsy Cline and the occasional pineapple tart with a cup of tea, she now runs a café in Sydney where she lives with her French husband and two cats Angus and Nellie.

It truly is a family affair here as Alison's brother, Andrew, has written a song inspired by the book. Listen to Retard Dad by TJX here:

For more details on TJX, check out their MySpace page www.myspace.com/teejayex

And listen to Alison reading extracts from Poking Seaweed on her MySpace page www.myspace.com/alisonwhitelock2999

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