Allan Ahlberg's The Boyhood of Burglar Bill is a nostalgic, autobiographical story about football, schooldays and growing-up in the '50s. Allan Ahlberg is the internationally bestselling author of children's classics that include Peepo! and Each Peach, Pear Plum, illustrated by Janet Ahlberg.

Archie was a wonder dog in all our eyes. Nearly a year ago he had got run over. They found his foot in the street but the rest of him ran off. Mr Purnell mourned for a while; Mrs Purnell offered to beat the motorcyclist up or at least wreck his bike. Then, lo and behold, a fortnight later back came Archie. 

Coronation year, 1953. The boys from the bottom pitch - a great soup of boys - play football. When the 'Coronation Cup' is proposed, they put their heads together, pool their pocket money and get a team up. There's no chance they'll win of course. They're just the odds and sods in Mr Cork's opinion. Besides, he'd go berserk if they did; menace them with his one good arm and pulverise their desks with his cricket stump. They'd be better off losing.

The Boyhood of Burglar Bill is the second in a sequence of stories in which Allan Ahlberg explores his own childhood. My Brother's Ghost, shortlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, was the first. 

Author: Allan Ahlberg
Paperback
ISBN: 9780141321424
Publisher: Penguin Books