He Called Me Son

In Post War London in the dingy flat he shares with his mother and sister, nine year old Tony Addington dreams of two things: a father who isn’t a drunken womaniser and who cares enough to stick around; and getting off The Blountmere Street School “Poor List”.

Both these aspirations are fulfilled for a short time when Fred Stannard becomes their lodger. However, this is short-lived and the fabric of Tony’s life once again becomes frayed. With the deterioration of his mother’s health and admittance into hospital, Tony and his sister, Angela, are snatched from their home and placed in separate orphanages. He is not allowed to contact his family and they have no idea where he has been taken. Subsequently, Tony is told his mother has died and he is being sent to New Zealand as part of the British Government’s Child Migration Scheme.

In New Zealand, Tony, together with another boy, Joe, from the orphanage, is put to work on a remote farm in the mountain foothills of the South Island. The work is hard and lonely. They are often hungry, receive no pay or education and live in what is nothing more than a shack with two older farm workers.

In the face of Eleod Downston’s cruelty and abuse, Tony struggles to deal with his grief and works at hanging on to his memories of his family and friends in Blountmere Street, especially ‘The Gang’ he played with on their bombsite camp, and Paula, the girl downstairs, with whom he shared a secret friendship.

When they are fifteen Tony and Joe finally escape from Eleod Downston and find work on another farm. It is here that Tony gets to wear shoes that fit, pants that don’t cut into his crutch and shirts that extend beyond his navel. At last he receives a wage, the education he has missed and starts his search for his family, for Fred, Paula and the truth.