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Without Warning and Only Sometimes

'Extraordinary. Moving and heartwarming' The Sunday Times

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Without Warning and Only Sometimes

By: Kit de Waal
Narrated by: Kit de Waal
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From the award-winning author of MY NAME IS LEON, THE TRICK TO TIME and SUPPORTING CAST comes a childhood memoir set to become a classic: stinging, warm-hearted, and true.

Kit de Waal grew up in a household of opposites and extremes. Her haphazard mother rarely cooked, forbade Christmas and birthdays, worked as a cleaner, nurse and childminder sometimes all at once and believed the world would end in 1975. Meanwhile, her father stuffed barrels full of goodies for his relatives in the Caribbean, cooked elaborate meals on a whim and splurged money they didn't have on cars, suits and shoes fit for a prince. Both of her parents were waiting for paradise. It never came.

Caught between three worlds, Irish, Caribbean and British in 1960s Birmingham, Kit and her brothers and sisters knew all the words to the best songs, caught sticklebacks in jam jars and braved hunger and hellfire until they could all escape.

WITHOUT WARNING AND ONLY SOMETIMES is a story of an extraordinary childhood and how a girl who grew up in house where the Bible was the only book on offer went on to discover a love of reading that inspires her to this day.

(P) 2022 Headline Publishing Group Ltd©2022 Kit de Waal Art & Literature Authors Caribbean Creators Parenting & Families Relationships Teenagers Women Heartfelt Royalty Caribbean
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Critic reviews

Extraordinary . . . De Waal has a gift for the deft detail that will bring a story or character alive . . . A moving, heart-warming account of a girl who grows up in a house with no books except the Bible, gets in with a bad crowd and nearly goes under. In the end, and after she has left home, she is saved by books. When she can't sleep she reads the classics. Now she may even have written one
An astonishingly good evocation of the dream and reality of migration to postwar Birmingham
A terrific evocation of her family life in 1960s Birmingham
In the end, this is a survivor's story. It doesn't pull any punches, but it ends with a girl determined to live, to "turn the page and keep reading"
Intelligent, angry and sometimes very funny
Dynamic and immersive, Kit de Waal's effervescent memoir documents a fraught childhood of opposites and conflicting identities with wit, humanity and an uncanny power for bringing the figures of her youth to vibrant life. (Maggie O'Farrell)
A delightful and harrowing book. I can't think of another since Edmund Gosse's Father and Son that gives such a well-written child's-eye view of an upbringing in a suffocating Christian sect . . . I highly recommend
This is a sometimes bleak, often funny tale of finding a way to live through reading, which is all the more amazing given the only book in Kit's house was the Bible
Kit's writing is beautiful - vivid and compelling, and so moving. Families are such a mix of joy and pain and Kit's depiction of her parents' dynamic was both painful and comforting to read. There's so much love, warmth and hope. I wanted to keep reading this book for ever (Marian Keyes)
I knew Kit de Waal was special the moment I met her. And now I know why (Lemn Sissay)
Warm, honest, perceptive and moving, and the very best kind of memoir, because not only does it tell you about someone else's life, it tells you about your own (Joanna Cannon)
I loved it and couldn't put it down. Both joyous and heartbreaking, it captures an era and is also a beautiful tribute to sibling love, and a completely compelling story of how one girl became a reader (Cathy Rentzenbrink)
A window into an extraordinary childhood, told with blistering wit, pathos and joy, I could not have loved this more. Kit takes you on a thrilling ride traversing her past filled with humour, faith, joy and dysfunction. I defy you not to lake it into your heart (Abi Morgan)
I couldn't put this book down. Beautifully written and searingly honest. Eye-opening, funny and moving - the words fly off the page. I didn't want this book to end Kit de Waal is a natural born storyteller (Paul McVeigh)
All stars
Most relevant
I very much enjoyed this book, well written and narrated. I knew so many people like this in my childhood but now seeing it through their eyes, half Irish, half Caribbean and a Jehovah’s Witness. As a child I didn’t, I couldn’t have understood the struggle such people had, they were just friends who I didn’t realise were treated any differently to me a white English girl in the 1970s. Obviously I did as I got older and have always been very upset by that. This isn’t a book about any kind of complaints but an uplifting, raw and gritty telling of a childhood on into womanhood. Excellent.

Superb

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Those of us brought up in the Jehovah's Witness cult will recognise so much in this book. It's not an attack on the JW, though there can be no hiding how much that upbringing shaped this woman's life. But it is about how different layers and experiences, from so many different backgrounds, became the 'nurture' to her 'nature'.

It's a fascinating tale and I'd love to think there will be a follow-up as there is so much of the story yet to be told.

An unusual childhood!

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I’m mixed race from her era it brought back vivid memories. Laughed out loud once or twice the recognition of a Caribbean dad and an Irish mum was so strong. Can’t forget the images of Fay.

Loved it

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Loved listening to Kit talking about her childhood through to early adulthood. It was narrated beautifully by the author.

Great memoir!

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I loved this book. It's personal and interesting and full of humanity. A really great story.

Fantastic story

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