Skip to main content

So I Hit Him by Mick Whatham: book review




So I Hit Him: Surviving life as an institutionalised alien (2013) is a powerful memoir of growing up in foster care and institutions. Whatham is writing at the age of 60, reflecting on his journey through life.

Whatham begins in Manchester, England, on the day of his birth in June 1952. He was told that his mother died during childbirth – with him and his twin brother – and that his father walked out of the hospital, never to be seen again. ‘I know now this to be a lie.’

His parents had other children: Joyce (1948) – still living, Jeanette (1950) who died just before her third birthday, Kenneth (1951) who died a month after birth, and the twins (1952). He learned that his mother, Evelyn, died in 1953 when she was 28 years old. And he learned that he had a twin later in life.

Mick (Michael) was born with Ausperger’s syndrome and cerebral palsy, having to wear calipers on his legs to enable him to walk. By the age of 17 he had been placed in more than 30 institutions. But it was his foster family, the Daintys, that he thinks of most, especially Mrs. Dainty: ‘her knowledge, care, love, and common sense were to shape my life in many ways.’

He recounts his years of frustration and rage – against  those who bullied him, against his own inadequacies, and against the system. But this is not a memoir seeking sympathy, nor is it recounted with bitterness.

Writing from Australia, where he now lives, he was involved in the 2001 Australian Senate Hearing into Child Migration, and was conducting his doctoral research into Youth-at-Risk at the time of writing the memoir. This is a book about persistence, determination, and resilience. Presenting a factual account – with dates and footnotes – he shines a light on the effects of institutionalisation, the cruelty of parents, school children, and strangers, and the love and understanding of those that nurtured him. He regards himself as lucky – for if he had been reared by his birth parents, he believes he would surely have led a disadvantaged life – or a short one.

MARTINA NICOLLS is the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh  (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. That

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass

Sister cities discussed: Canberra and Islamabad

Two months ago, in March 2015, Australia and Pakistan agreed to explore ways to deepen ties. The relationship between Australia and Pakistan has been strong for decades, and the two countries continue to keep dialogues open. The annual bilateral discussions were held in Australia in March to continue engagements on a wide range of matters of mutual interest. The Pakistan delegation discussed points of interest will include sports, agriculture, economic growth, trade, border protection, business, and education. The possible twinning of the cities of Canberra, the capital of Australia, and Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, were also on the agenda (i.e. called twin towns or sister cities). Sister City relationships are twinning arrangements that build friendships as well as government, business, culture, and community linkages. Canberra currently has international Sister City relationships with Beijing in China and Nara in Japan. One example of existing