Stalin Ate My Homework

Stalin Ate My Homework

by Alexei Sayle (Author)

Synopsis

Alexei Sayle was born in Liverpool on the day egg rationing came to an end. Alexei always knew his parents were different. They ate salad. And they read the Soviet Weekly. They also travelled. They travelled to northern seaside towns to attend AGMs. And they travelled across Europe. Determined to see Communism in action, they travelled to Czechoslavkia, where they visited the sites of massacres and ate strange smelling sausages. Life was often confusing. As the sixties took hold, Alexei tried hitchhiking and protesting and being cool but more or less missed the Beatles and the Liverpool poets. And he often found his mother at the same parties. While arguing was a way of life at home, it finally meant he was expelled from school. Thinking it might be time he became a painter, the book ends with him poised to start art-college. Whether talking about his mother's obsession with boiled eggs, his father's illness, the last tram or the unusual piece of furniture that was the Secretol, STALIN ATE MY HOMEWORK is a brilliantly funny and perceptive portrait of a family, a city, a country and a continent going through enormous changes.

$124.34

Quantity

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 352
Publisher: Sceptre
Published: 02 Sep 2010

ISBN 10: 0340919582
ISBN 13: 9780340919583

Media Reviews
'Sayle shares with [Alan] Bennett the genius for making the mundane fascinating' -- The Times 'If the result is like his other books, it will have a moral centre, there'll be bleak bits - and it will be very funny indeed.' -- Independent on Sunday 'The brilliant satires on modern life of Alexei Sayle (the only comedian worth his salt as a novelist) are contemporary gems.' -- Tim Lott, Independent 'Being able to wrap up a big moral conundrum with the guise of a fizzing entertainment is a considerable gift...it is wonderfully entertaining and tells us a lot about what it is like to live in 21st century Britain.' -- Jonathan Coe, Guardian on Overtaken 'Sayle's book has charm and substance, both as memoir and history.' -- TLS 20101119
Author Bio
Born in Liverpool, the only child of Communist parents, Alexei moved to London in 1971 to attend Chelsea Art School. He became the first MC of the Comedy Store and later the Comic Strip. After years of stand-up, television, sitcoms, films and even a hit-single, he published his first highly-acclaimed collection of short stories. BARCELONA PLATES was followed by THE DOG CATCHER, two novels: OVERTAKEN and THE WEEPING WOMEN HOTEL and a novella, MISTER ROBERTS. This is his first work of non-fiction.