Ricky Tomlinson: My family values

I grew up in the very working-class area of Everton in Liverpool, the second of four boys. Albert was the eldest, then me, then David, and Ronnie was the baby. We lived in a typical two-up, two-down house with a toilet in the backyard and us four boys in a big bed. Luckily, we all got on and are still very close. The house was rented because no one had any money in those days.

I come from a family of grafters. Dad was a baker, who’d bring home fresh barm cakes after his nightshift. Mum had three jobs – she cleaned houses, worked in an ice-cream factory and then the British American Tobacco factory, before she worked in a laundry. Dad was lucky he was in permanent employment, unlike our neighbours who worked down the docks and were lucky if they got two or three days work a week. Our parents instilled a tremendous work ethic in us. Albert’s just retired and he’s 77, I’m still working, and I’m almost 75, and the other two are still working.

Mum and Dad were good at playing good cop, bad cop. Mum was wonderful but a disciplinarian; Dad was more harum-scarum. If we were making a racket after being sent to bed, Mum would send Dad up to sort it. He’d take a stair rod off the stairs and then whack a pillow to make it sound like we were being given the belt for misbehaving. We’d fall about laughing.

I’m a diehard Liverpool fan, same as my oldest and youngest brother. David jumped ship and became an Evertonian after he met a girl. He’s a lost cause. I’ve never seen animosity between these two teams, like I have in other big cities. It’s just real good banter.

I always wanted to be a writer, but my aspirations were scuppered because of my asthma – the day I took my 11-plus, I had a bad attack and I didn’t do very well. So Mum and Dad pointed me down the trades route and I became a plasterer. I drive my wife, Rita, round the bend because I buy all sorts of tools and the latest DIY gadgets.

My three kids were less lucky than me. I wish I’d been there more for them but I was out working all the time. Things were tough. The building industry can be very unstable, and I was constantly moving jobs. I’d leave for work at 7am, come in at 6pm, get washed, shaved and changed and then I’d be out performing or compering at a social club.

Our house was repossessed when the kids were growing up. How did I bounce back from that? I’m from Liverpool. We don’t let things defeat us. I will never, ever move away from Liverpool, I love it here.

I’m the softest grandfather in the world. I’ve got three granddaughters, two who are grown up and the littlest, Maggie May, has only just turned one. My grandson, Louis, is nine. He comes to our house every morning and Rita takes him to school. I’m a keen banjo player so he took up the guitar and he’s really good. I’m so proud of them all, as they ask me for nothing really. I bought the girls nice little cars and if they’re ever stuck, I help them out because I think that’s my duty as a grandparent and I’m lucky that fortune has smiled on me later in life.

Culled from guardian.co.uk

IAN SANSOM