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Paperboy: An Enchanting True Story of a Belfast Paperboy Coming to Terms with the Troubles
- Narrated by: Tony Macaulay
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
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Paperboy: An Enchanting True Story of a Belfast Paperboy Coming to Terms with the Troubles
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Summary
It's Belfast, 1975. The city lies under the dark cloud of the Troubles, and hatred fills the air like smoke. But Tony Macaulay has just turned 12 and he's got a new job. He's going to be a paperboy. And come rain or shine - or bombs and mortar - he will deliver....
Paperboy lives in Upper Shankill, Belfast, in the heart of the conflict between Loyalists and Republicans. Bombings are on the evening news, rubble lies where buildings once stood, and rumours spread like wildfire about the IRA and the UDA.
But Paperboy lives in a world of Doctor Who, Top of the Pops and fish suppers. His battles are fought with all the passion of Ireland's opposing sides - but against acne, the dentist, and the "wee hoods" who rob his paper money. On his rounds he hums songs by the Bay City Rollers, dreams about outer space, and dreams even more about the beautiful Sharon Burgess.
In this touching, funny, and nostalgic memoir, Tony Macaulay recounts his days growing up in Belfast during the Troubles, the harrowing years which saw neighbour fighting neighbour and brother fighting brother. But in the midst of all this turmoil, Paperboy, a scrappy upstart with a wicked sense of humour and sky-high dreams, dutifully goes about his paper round. He is a good paperboy, so he is.
Paperboy proves that happiness can be found even in the darkest of times; it is a story that will charm your socks off, make you laugh out loud and brings to life the culture, stories, and colourful characters of a very different - but very familiar - time.
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What listeners say about Paperboy: An Enchanting True Story of a Belfast Paperboy Coming to Terms with the Troubles
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Michele Astall
- 24-11-23
JUST BRILLIANT!
This book brought back so many great memories of my childhood……no stretched out or boring parts…. The whole book is well worth listening too or reading…… bring out many more of these please T McC.
I have ‘Bread boy’ now lined up for my next book.
LOVED ‘Paper boy’
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Vee
- 16-12-18
brilliant
funny, quick,beautifully written and narrated. Loved hearing about the only passivist paperboy in west Belfast. made me laugh out loud in my car (got some funny looks at traffic lights).
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Lorelei Filotto
- 05-08-20
Excellent
I laughed out loud! Very funny with serious history sewn through it! Really enjoed it!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- MRS LYNN D MARTIN
- 06-08-18
Funny
Had great enjoyment listening to this book. Tony read it well. Brought back so many memories of when I was a teenager. Excellent read if you like a good laugh..spit my sides laughing
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- RJG
- 18-04-17
Super
loved it , I could relate to the story line as I was paperboy too in Belfast in my younger days.
I hope that he publishes his other novels in audio version soon
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Jim Hopkins
- 14-12-18
what about ye
Great story laughed for hours, simple tale in hard times very well read a must.
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- Amazon Customer
- 25-03-18
excellent
funny, very entertaining, especially if you grew up in the 70's. you can relate to a lot of this story no matter where you lived.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 12-02-23
Laughed out loud throughout this book
It brought me back to my own childhood living in N Ireland . I enjoyed every chapter . Well done !
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- Chris
- 15-07-18
Lovely and funny story!
Entertaining story well narrated by the author. Gave me a really rich sense of what it might have been like to be growing up in west Belfast in the 1970s—a funny, insightful, and charming audiobook.
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- Clady Lad
- 22-06-19
Here, this is 'stickin out' so it is
I loved this, and as a wee fella who grew up in Belfast during the Troubles at the same time as Tony McAulay, it was a fabulous trip down memory lane - so it was. I laughed out loud on so many occasions but also felt a little misty-eyed too. It transported me back through both time and space to my own youth and my gang of mates.
Leaving aside the setting and time, Paperboy is also a very perceptive and well-crafted piece taking us inside the mind of a soon-to-be teenager, with hormones starting to work overtime, on a journey to young adulthood and keen to win approval from his peers.
The follow-up books in the series (Breadboy & All Growed Up) are just as good and it would be great to see these find their way onto audible too.
As a bonus there's a nice glossary of terms at the end which might help those requiring translations for some of the 100% authentic Belfast colloquialisms.
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