Michael Rosen 
So They Call You Pisher! 
A Memoir

‘If you didn’t know whether to risk doing something, what’s the worst that could happen? ‘So they call you pisher!”



In this humorous and moving memoir, Michael Rosen recalls the first twenty-three years of his life. Born in the North London suburbs, his parents, Harold and Connie, both teachers, first met as teenage Communists in the 1930s Jewish East End. The family home was filled with stories of relatives in London, the United States and France and of those who had disappeared in Europe.



Unlike the children around them, Rosen and his brother Brian grew up dreaming of a socialist revolution. Party meetings were held in the front room, summers were for communist camping holidays, till it all changed after a trip to East Germany, when in 1957 his parents decided to leave ‘the Party.’ Michael followed his own journey of radical self-discovery: running away to march against the bomb at Aldermaston, writing and performing in experimental political theatre and getting arrested during the 1968 movements.



An audio version of this book, read by the author, is available at: https://www.audible.co.uk

About the author

Michael Rosen is the author of over 140 books of poetry, stories and cultural politics. He was the UK’s Children’s Laureate 2007-9 and is currently Professor of Children’s Literature at Goldsmiths, University of London, where he co-devised and co-tutors the MA in Children’s Literature. He has won numerous international awards for his work. His most famous books are We’re Going on a Bear Hunt (with Helen Oxenbury); Quick, Let’s Get Out of Here; and Michael Rosen’s Sad Book (both with Quentin Blake). He presents BBC Radio 4’s flagship programme about language, Word of Mouth, and writes a monthly provocative open letter to the Secretary of State for Education in the Guardian.