No Joe Bloggs and Joe's Jolly Japes, my literary pride and joy

No Joe Bloggs and Joe's Jolly Japes, my literary pride and joy.

I know you've probably hundreds of celebrity autobiographies and many millions of words have been written on every conceivable subject but my last book No Joe Bloggs I think will take you on the most emotionally rewarding journey of all. No Joe Bloggs was written from my standpoint and is the story of an ordinary member of the public.

No Joe Bloggs is, I believe, quite definitely funny, moving and sentimental and very descriptive into the bargain. It's the story of my grandparents as Holocaust survivors, their hopes, aspirations and dreams and my take on what might have happened after the Second World War, my teenage battle against shyness and loneliness and an abundance of quirkiness. There are references to my favourite kind of pop music, artists, singers and radio stations such as Radio 1, the cultural movers and shakers of the 1960s and 70s, the TV celebrities, famous shows from the 1960s and 70s, the showbiz legends and funny pen portraits about Morecambe and Wise, The Two Ronnies, Norman Wisdom, Bob Monkhouse, Dave Allen and the people who made us roar with laughter with their heady mix of light entertainment, lovely gags and fun loving witticisms.

There are also very descriptive pen portraits of football teams from the 1960s and 70s such as Arsenal, Leeds United, Liverpool, Ipswich Town, Wolves, Manchester United, Manchester City, Spurs and Chelsea with the clubs characteristics and amusing comparisons with everybody and anything. I feel sure that you'll abandon yourself to both chuckling and giggling in a matter of seconds.

In No Joe Bloggs, I had to pay the warmest homage to my late and wonderful dad. Here I paint the most affectionate picture of my lovely dad and his enduring love affair with the West End of London, Piccadilly Circus, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Dean Martin and the big band sound of wartime in London. I've written a totally imaginary but I think very amusing story about my dad and Frank Sinatra hanging out in Las Vegas, cruising the strip, drinking non alcoholic drinks in the bars and playing American pool or possibly snooker.

Then I take you back to my Ilford home and tell you about the neighbours in my road while growing up in Ilford, Essex as well as the families, the friends and the ice cream van that used to light up the road with jolly music. Then there are my seaside visits with my parents and grandparents, their huge shopping bag of sandwiches and the shops and department stores that were somehow integral to who I was and my descriptions of the sublime and the ridiculous.

I'm particularly proud of my chapter on London and the West End. Here I launch into the most lyrical and verbally lively commentary you may ever read. I'm not one to blow my trumpet and boast but believe me for lovers of literature my chapter on my take of London really is literary poetic licence.  I feel sure that you'll identify with some of my descriptions and warm to my take on London.


In the concluding chapters of No Joe Bloggs I go back to Ilford, Essex and tell you about the very local timber merchants at the bottom of our road, the doctors surgery and the doctors, the milkmen and postmen, my proud Jewish heritage, the Jewish holidays and above all the way I dealt with what became diagnosed as autism. No Joe Bloggs is personal, precious, heartfelt, sincere, deeply appreciative of everybody and everybody who made me tick.


No Joe Bloggs is full of pop culture, telly, radio, music, football, tennis, cricket, rugby and all the sporting icons of the age from Bjorn Borg, Ilie Nastase, Jimmy Connors, Virginia Wade, Chris Evert, the great Hollywood stars from yesteryear, the epic films from days gone by, my favourite films such as Saturday Night Fever, Grease, West Side Story and loads of cultural references. There are  both American and British comedy programmes and stars. It is action packed with wittty anecdotes, personal stories from my childhood and my dad's East End uncle with a toy warehouse in his house.

I hope I've done enough to persuade you to spend just a while in the world of an ordinary member of the public. We all have our tale to tell and we're often told that there's a book in all of us. This is my story, my humorous take on my childhood, the teenage struggles, the striving after the silver lining and the quest for acceptance among good and understanding friends and family. I've always wanted to explain why things went wrong for me as a teenager and why I was so terrified to communicate and engage with kids of my age. No Joe Bloggs is my therapy, my catharsis, my way of coming to terms with my very late development in life.

The end of No Joe Bloggs is a rags to riches story about an ordinary kid from the back streets of Ilford, a man who just wanted to carve out a personality and identity that just refused to grow. Of course my teenage years were lonely and scary. They were uncomfortable and unpleasant and totally wasted and to those whose acquaintance I failed to make as a kid I can only apologise.

 I was that petrified three year old on his first day at nursery and I just didn't want to chat or joke, laugh or talk to anybody. To any of my personal friends who I went to school and then unintentionally snubbed at my local youth club. it certainly wasn't personal. I have to tell you that although I may have only been 11 at the time deep inside me there was almost an almost irrational fear and terror of the kids outside the club. I was convinced they'd pick on me and make fun of me and therefore this is what No Joe Bloggs tries to illustrate. No Joe Bloggs is a book of wit, humour, detail, rapturous description, loads of expressive literature. No Joe Bloggs is my attempt to explain the ups and downs of teenage angst, and an almost delayed adolescence and how I fought and now succeeded against all of the odds. No Joe Bloggs is a triumph against adversity, the victory over near certain defeat and an uplifting, heartwarming and moving story about me No Joe Bloggs or No Joe Bloggs by Joe Morris.  I now have the most wonderful family behind me and I think that's a happy after ever story.


You can buy No Joe Bloggs at Amazon, Waterstones online market place and Barnes and Noble and you can find an accompanying You Tube video as well.