Liccle Bit: Book 1 (Crongton)

Product Information

Since retiring her drag persona and transitioning, Honey Mahogany is now actively campaigning as a politician in San Francisco. Then there’s Venetia, the hottest girl at school, who has noticed his talent, and his friends McKay and Jonah who give him no chance with Venetia. At first it was a little jarring, but I started to connect what the lingo meant when aligned with context and repetition. Although the parts about a turf war on an estate are very bleak (victims of killings are referred to as having been "deleted" or "blazed") the book does contain strong messages about love and loyalty. Following a short stint in prison following the Brixton uprising of 1981, he wrote poems and lyrics and became known as the Brixtonbard.

Living on the South Crongton council estate has its worries - and life for McKay has been even tougher since his mum died. This one will excite the urban young because their world is brought alive on the pages and those who raised in green and pleasant lands. Thrilling, moving and absolutely fascinating, these books are sure to both inform and inspire your teenager. Since becoming one of the first queens to ever go home in a double sashay away, Vivienne Pinay has vanished from social media and hasn’t posted on Instagram since 2016.

Very important because I don't believe you can carry someone along with you on a narrative if you just keep hitting them with bricks and bleakness. For anyone who has not yet read Liccle Bit, (and you really should) McKay starts with a brief prologue giving just enough information to allow the reader to understand the background to the events that follow. Reading The Hobbit and Lord of Rings inspired the author of Brixton Rock to take risks with language and dialogue in his own books, none more so than in his YA debut Liccle Bit and sequel Crongton Knights, where he brews up a fictional concoction of South London, US Hip-Hop , Jamaican dancehall and beyond!

Read all Based on the book by Alex Wheatle, this ten-minute dramatisation follows 'Liccle Bit' as he struggles with growing up in the rough neighbourhood of South Crongton, whether that be in his relationships with his peers, love-interests, gang culture or his family in their cramped flat. The banter between him and his friends is also laugh-aloud funny while mercifully shorn of the four-letter words that might otherwise be expected from today's teenage world. For me it really helps when young people, especially working class children are exposed to all kinds of careers and they can see themselves in that career in terms of whoever is coming into the school reflecting themselves. But his sister’s ex, Manjoro, wants him to do a “liccle errand” for him, and then another, and when there’s a killing on the estate, he worries that he is embroiled. Wheatle perfectly captures the highs and lows of teenage life, while also highlighting the humanity and tragedy occuring in the lives of some of London's poorest teenagers.I don't live on an estate and it makes you apprciate the struggles and worries of a young guy living in a tough area worried about getting shanked. A look into the world of gangs from the perspective of a young teen, Liccle Bit doesn’t shy away from the violence that surrounds the situation and offers a unique look into how terrifingly quick a life can change.

Like Grahame Green’s Brighton Rock (1938), upon which Wheatle’s novel puns, Brixton Rock is an exploration of sin in a closed society seemingly purged of the possibilities of redemption. Wheatle's debut novel, Brixton Rock, was adapted for the stage and performed at the Young Vic in July 2010. If the Windrush narrative has been rendered routine through endless repetition in recent years, Wheatle’s work continues to innovate, moving beyond the youthful masculinities which are central to the authentic vision of his established fiction to dwell on the epic lives of two women.Dictionary compilers on the look-out for new expressions should find plenty to work with in these pages.

And Christ I haven't been that stressed reading in ages, at certain points I could hear my heart pounding in my ears. Deserves all the praise and awards it's been getting and just as good as the first book in this series, Liccle Bit. The dialogue and language the whole way through was clever and authentic without seeming excessive or patronising. Alex Wheatle tells Emily Drabble how he built a new fictional world and language to create his multi-award winning Crongton series. A tense novel bringing the very real situation lots of young teens find themselves in to light, Liccle Bit makes you stop and think.He now visits schools, colleges, universities, libraries and prisons facilitating creative writing classes and performing inspiring speeches. With fortune on her side, Kemosha befriends Ravenhide, a man with a mysterious past who teaches her the art of swordfighting, and introduces her to the beautiful runaway Isabella. If you have concerns about how we have used your personal information, you also have the right to complain to a privacy regulator. And if they can read about characters that they recognise, they're familiar with, that they can engage with, that might describe their social world, that's crucial to get them in the habit of reading.