Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush – Tim Key

All sordid thoughts left my head and I started blushing. She was looking in the window. I raced towards her, then slowed down to saunter past. I said hello and coughed, but she didn’t turn round, She was too busy examining some truffles. I was about twenty yards past her, stil! looking round in case she saw me.

I decided to walk back and shout hello this time till she realized I was there. Out of the shop raced Phil Bodger, with a big bag full of goodies. Mary smiled at him and pointed at something in the window. _ ‘T’ve got them,” said Phil. ‘Come on, we’re not half going to be late.’ They rushed up the road, the way I’d just come.

I think Phil had caught sight of me, but not Mary. He turned round and gave me a great leer. As they crossed the street, he put his arm round her. Scruffy old Phil Bodger, a bloke with more pock marks than I have. He thought he was dead attractive, like a Rolling Stone. He could never go to the baths because they had no towels in his house. How had he conned Mary into going any- where with him? By the time I’d got to Pauline’s house I’d decided they must be in the same Church and he’d just happened to meet her on the way to some classes.

Obviously all dead innocent. Well, couldn’t be otherwise with that yob. Pauline’s house looked deserted. I patted my pocket to see I had my wrist-watch safe. I’d taken it off my arm, just to consetve its radio-active powers. I gave myself a last brush down with my hand, removed a few specks of dust, and walked up the drive.

I wasn’t really wotried about my appearance, just habit. After all, I’d be get- ting stripped off in a few moments. The drive was really a thin stretch of cement about ten yards long which wound round and round to give the im- \ pfession it was dead long. Either side of it was carefully arranged gravel, as if Pauline’s Dad had gone round it with a comb. A sure sign of class. The gravel was green and shiny and looked like a funeral parlour.

The bell was the sort which lit up, another posh touch. No council-house knockers round here, It was very apt, a lit-up bell. I pressed it and waited. Nothing happened. I pressed it again. It couldn’t be working. Typical middle class, all show. I listened through the letter box. Yes. I could hear it. I jam- med my finger on it. I’d be off the heat if she didn’t hurry up.

‘Refreshingly innocent of any moral, other than that sex is not so easy for today’s teenagers as everyone thinks’ Oxford Times ‘Slick, fast and funny’ Sunday Times ‘The story of a shy, sensitive lad of 17 who lives in a council house and whose ambition is a girl from a semi-detached. It is beautifully written and gives a true picture of the agonies and joys of the struggle of a provincial youth from boyhood to manhood’ Time ¢> Tide ‘Brash and buzzy with-itness’ New Statesman Hunter Davies Here We Go, Round the Mulberry Bush A Panther Book at Here We Go, eee the ‘ iia A Panther Book | ye ; First published i in Great Britain by William Heinemann Limited 1965 Panther edition published 1967 ee Reprinted 1967 (twice), 1968 Gigeh times) : Copyright © Hunter Davies 1965 The book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of bindi or cover other than that in which ’ it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

i Printed in England by Hunt Reload & Co., L Lid, ae Buches and published Ft Panther Books Ltd., heawiy hare ie, roger ute Street, Leadon W, t fas” aD for my mother ONE The first time I really spoke to her was one Saturday morning after I’d delivered the first load of bread. I did a message round for the Co-op near our estate. Just about an hour every evening after school, as well as Saturday mornings. Not much really, when you think.

I got ten bob a week, plus three or four bob in tips and as much sweets as I could nick when no one was watching. On Saturdays, the first delivery of bread came at eight. I got rid of half my orders by ten and slipped off for an hour till the bread man came with the next load at eleven.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: 5785fe0acecd7baa
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 7,247,147 bytes (6.911 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• Pages: 197
• Language: English (en)

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• Estimated Reading Time: 301.1 minutes
• Total Words: 60,220
• Total Characters: 322,250
• Average Words per Page: 305.69
• Average Characters per Page: 1635.79

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