A Belfast Child A Belfast Child

A Belfast Child

My true story of life and death in the Troubles

    • 4.7 • 14 Ratings
    • £4.99
    • £4.99

Publisher Description

John Chambers was brought up on Belfast's notorious Loyalist Glencairn estate, during the height of the Troubles. From an early age he witnessed violence, hatred and horror as Northern Ireland tore itself apart in civil strife. Kneecapping, brutal murders, and even public tarring-and-feathering were simply a fact of life for the children on the estate. He thought he knew which side he was on, but although raised as a Loyalist, he was hiding a troubling secret: that his disappeared mother - whom he'd always been told was dead - was a Roman Catholic, 'the enemy'.

In a memoir of rare power, John explores the dark heart of Northern Irish sectarianism in the seventies and eighties. With searing honesty and native Belfast wit, he describes the light and darkness of his unique childhood, and his teenage journey through mod culture and ultra-Loyalism, before an escape from Belfast to London - where, still haunted by the shadow of his fractured family history - he began a turbulent and hedonistic adulthood.

A Belfast Child is a tale of divided loyalties, dark secrets and the scars left by hatred and violence on a proud city - but also a story of hope, healing and ultimate redemption for a family caught in the rising tide of the Troubles.

GENRE
Politics & Current Affairs
RELEASED
2020
3 September
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
304
Pages
PUBLISHER
John Blake
SIZE
1.7
MB

Customer Reviews

Kelz7683 ,

Good read

Being born in a town just outside of Belfast but then moving countries at just 2 years old it was fascinating to read.

Japsportscarmad ,

So true to life

This book captures the true feeling of Belfast, the horror the adrenaline, the sadness, the constant watching to see what will happen, and both the sadness and joy of families in a way that is easy to have empathy for.

Simply brilliant

Bukitima ,

Heartwarming story of a childhood in a conflict zone

This is a gripping story of a boys experience growing up in Belfast at the height of the troubles before eventually finding himself in later life and exorcising his ghosts through music, friends, family and sheer will and determination. Parts of it had me in tears at the sadness and hardship the author had to endure. And other parts had me laughing out loud at the Irish “craic” and amazing escapades. A Belfast Child will keep you enthralled from the opening pages right through to the end

More Books by John Chambers

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2017
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2008
Homer’s The Odyssey Homer’s The Odyssey
2023
Mes leçons de leadership Mes leçons de leadership
2019
A Working Day A Working Day
2022

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