Hopkins Family Saga
7 total works
It's December 1963 when Billy Hopkins and his wife Laura arrive back home in Manchester, after five years in Africa. The bitter English weather is a shock, but there are bigger surprises to come, for the world they left behind has changed beyond recognition. Now, it's the swinging sixties, with headlines full of the Beatles and the pill, LSD and mini skirts. Traditional values have been thrown into the melting pot. As a father of four, Billy might have cause to worry. But his youngest son still believes in Santa Claus and while his daughter's reading Jackie, she's not even a teenager yet. Billy's more concerned about the welfare of his increasingly forgetful father and about the daily challenges he faces as a college lecturer than about the impact of modern society on his offspring. When the four junior Hopkins start to choose their own, unexpected paths in life, though, Billy finds it harder than usual to see the funny side of things!
"Anything Goes" brings readers close to a warm and loving family who somehow get through all their ups and downs - the dangerous illness of a child, the astonishing money-making schemes of enthusiastic youngsters, the heartbreaking decline of a parent - without ever losing their sense of humour.
"Anything Goes" brings readers close to a warm and loving family who somehow get through all their ups and downs - the dangerous illness of a child, the astonishing money-making schemes of enthusiastic youngsters, the heartbreaking decline of a parent - without ever losing their sense of humour.
It's September 1945 and Billy Hopkins is off to London to train as a teacher, with only ten bob in his pocket. Despite his dad's gloomy warnings that he'll pick up bad ways from the toffs down South, Billy survives two years in the Big City, and returns to take up his first teaching job in Manchester - on 300 a year! The catch is his first class, Senior Four, who bitterly resent the raising of the school leaving age, and are all set to take it out on their teacher - luckily the kid from Collyhurst has some tricks up his sleeve. And Billy's about to fall in love with the beautiful Laura. But is she, as his dad says, 'too good for the likes of us'?
The bestselling author of the nostalgic classics OUR KID, HIGH HOPES and KATE'S STORY has based his engaging new novel on the fascinating and inspiring life of his father Tommy, born in a Manchester slum in 1886. Tommy Hopkins' early years aren't very promising. Born at the end of the nineteenth century in a slum district of Manchester, he's blessed with a loving, hard-working mam and dad, but they don't have two ha'pennies to rub together. In addition to suffering poverty, the family is struck by tragedy not once but twice. But Tommy is a survivor. At school he quickly makes lots of friends, and together they plot money-making schemes, settle scores and play lots of football. Then, at last, it's time to leave the playground behind. Denied the chance of a promising career as an engineer, Tommy instead finds employment at Manchester's Smithfield market and works his way up, finally becoming a porter. He's turning into a man, and amongst the young women who catch his eye is Kate Lally, who may just be the love of his life...
'Dad, it's the happiest day of my life,' Kate said. 'I wish time would stand still and it could be today forever.' It's June 1897, and Kate is celebrating her eleventh birthday on the day of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. Kate's joy is short-lived, as tragedy strikes, threatening her family with the loss of all they hold dear. Before long they are evicted from their home in Ancoats, Manchester, and with no wages coming in and a mother unable to cope, Kate has to grow up fast. Her deepest desire is to keep her brothers and sisters together. A journey of hope and heartache takes Kate from the hardships of the workhouse to the dubious comforts of a position in service to the rich; from the joys of marriage to a good man, to the sorrows and losses suffered during the Great War.
An enchantingnew episode in the fictionalised life of Billy Hopkins, with whom readers have travelled happily since his birth in 1920s Manchester, through the war years and on to the swinging sixties.BillyHopkins is thrilled to be released from the trials and tribulations of teaching when he takes early retirement. He's justbuzzing with ideas for filling his time and making a spare buck- whether it's investing in apparently fail-safe business enterprises, starting up himself as an entrepreneur specialising in doll's houses or writing up the story of his life. Only one of those is likely to have the desired result on the financial front- but Billy's hilarious descriptions of his efforts, together with lovely glimpses of his ever-expanding family, make WHATEVER NEXT! a delightful and absolutely satisfying novel, which will update on-going readers and introduce many new ones to the unique world of the Hopkins household.
It was on a Sunday night in 1928 that Billy Hopkins made his first appearance. Billy's tenement home on the outskirts of Manchester would be considered a slum today, but he lived there happily with his large Catholic family, hatching money-making schemes with his friends. This book recalls an upbringing and an environment now vanished.
It's 1950, and when Laura and Billy Hopkins return to Manchester from their honeymoon, they're in seventh heaven despite the austerity that has been going on since World War II. But the euphoria gradually evaporates and they settle into a penny-pinching existence on Billy's teaching salary, as babies and bills appear with alarming regularity. When Billy spots an advertisement for Education Officers in Kenya, it sounds like the answer to all their prayers, despite worries about the Mau Mau rebellion and the omnipresence of dangerous creatures. After much family debate, Laura, Billy and the junior Hopkins set off to Nairobi on a BOAC Argonaut and start on the biggest adventure of their lives.