Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman

Asweh! This book is hutious.

Stephen's lively crossover tale takes us inside the world of Harrison Opuka. Recently from Ghana, now in towerblock land East London, 11 year old Harri is a fast runner and a fast learner. Apart from the odd event, such as the murder of a young neighbour, watching the theft of a tray of chickens from the market and the public deportation of a trader, Church, the local carnival and trading banter insults with big sis Lydia the life of Harri and his pals, Jordan, Connor and Dean is fairly leisurely and leaves time for knowall discussions, the hottest topics being sex and American police chases with lots of guns.

School features in a good way; they have to stay clear of the Dell Farm Crew but despite the wilder imaginative reaches of Harri's worldly knowledge he has a factual mind and enjoys absorbing well-presented science info.

This is very much a 'hearing' book, the author has a terrific ear for speech and it comes as no surprise to discover that he too was brought up in towerblock land. Some of the storytelling is fuelled by the real murder of Damilola Taylor in 2004.

For me it ticks all the right 'infotainment' boxes, often gritty, occasionally tragic the story gives me brand new material and is sometimes a damn good laugh!

Pigeon English was a Booker runner-up 2 years ago. A fair assessment I think.