What I did in My Holidays

Growing up in the 1960s in the impoverished north-east of England was not all that swinging for many people. For Danny, being the first person in his family and in his street to go to grammar school makes him the local guru, the one everybody brings their problems to and expects him to solve them. He struggles to hold the family together in the face of crushing poverty, a drunken father on the fringes of the law, and an invalid mother. In the guise of an essay for his English teacher, he recounts the last days of his childhood, telling the story of a summer that began in hope and ended in tragedy, and changed his life forever.