The coming-of-age story from popular music journalist Pete Paphides brings together his experiences as a child of Cypriot parents growing up in Birmingham and his early immersion in pop music in vivid and poignant prose.
'Do you sometimes feel like the music you're hearing is explaining your life to you?'
When Pete's parents moved from Cyprus to Birmingham in the 1960s in the hope of a better life, they had no money and only a little bit of English. They opened a fish-and-chip shop in Acocks Green. The Great Western Fish Bar is where Pete learned about coin-operated machines, male banter and Britishness.
Shy and introverted, Pete stopped speaking from age 4 to 7, and found refuge instead in the bittersweet embrace of pop songs, thanks to Top of the Pops and Dial-A-Disc. From Brotherhood of Man to UB40, from ABBA to The Police, music provided the safety net he needed to protect him from the tensions of his home life. It also helped him navigate his way around the challenges surrounding school, friendships and phobias such as visits to the barber, standing near tall buildings and Rod Hull and Emu.
With every passing year, his guilty secret became more horrifying to him: his parents were Greek, but all the things that excited him were British. And the engine of that realisation? 'Sugar Baby Love', 'Don't Go Breaking My Heart', 'Tragedy', 'Silly Games', 'Going Underground', 'Come On Eileen', and every other irresistibly thrilling chart hit blaring out of the chip shop radio.
Never have the trials and tribulations of growing up and the human need for a sense of belonging been so heart-breakingly and humorously depicted.
Publisher: Quercus Publishing
ISBN: 9781529404432
Number of pages: 592
Weight: 850 g
Dimensions: 240 x 162 x 54 mm
Lip-lickingly, dance-around-the-living-room good... A smash hit - Hannah Jane Parkinson, the Observer
I can't tell you how good this book is. Incredibly, it's Paphides's first - I'd be amazed (and disappointed) if it's his last - Alan Johnson, New Statesman
Like the very best pop songs, it gets under your skin, and stays there - Nick Duerden, Independent
Masterful - Jamie Atkins, Record Collector
...you'll be enthralled by Paphides' funny, warm and sometimes heartbreaking account of how life-affirming music can be - Jon Dennis, Telegraph
A perceptive writer, brilliant on bittersweet details... this is a plaintive account of cultural assimilation that is also brilliantly, honestly funny - Andrew Male, Mojo
A damn-near perfect book - Owen Richards, The Arts Desk
A book that will leave you smiling - Martin Chilton, Independent
Wonderful - Victoria Segal, Q Magazine
If you have ever... found solace in a song, you will relish this book - Jackie Annesley, The Sunday Times
Paphides can write like a dream, and knows how to make his particular circumstances resonate for anyone who, when young, hungered for music... a terrific achievement - Nick Lezard, Spectator
If you are in the market for a wonderfully written, deeply touching, pitch-perfect childhood memoir laced liberally with 70s nostalgia, then you need look no further - Long Live Vinyl
All the energy, thrill and immediacy of your favourite single. I can think of no higher praise than that - Teddy Jamieson, the Herald
Tender, heartfelt, humane and very funny - Joe Clay, The Times
The day before I read the last line of the last page, I was struck by an immediate longing to stay in it - Andres Lokko, Svenska Dagbladet
Paphides turns what could have been just another immigrant story into a detailed profusion of fact, genuine fun and a yearning, yarn-spinning search for cultural identity - Tony Clayton-Lea, Irish Times
Many of the challenges faced by young Paphides are standard childhood fare. It is in the telling that the author elevates his story to something rather beautiful - Chris Deerin, Big Issue
This is such an exceptional coming-of-age story, not just because Pete Paphides has stunningly faultless emotional recall, but because he puts the memory to such warm and generous use. It is, for me, a study in kindness, borne of a lifetime of listening - to records, to his parents' stories of their past, to others, to everything. Perhaps three childhood years without speaking makes you the most extraordinary listener. I didn't just laugh and cry - though obviously I did both those things throughout. I completely fell in love with this book, and with its boy hero, though I'm sure he'd be far too modest and mortified to be described that way. He is, though. In fact, Pete Paphides may very well have the biggest heart in Britain - Marina Hyde
This is a truly beautiful book. It makes the deeply personal profoundly universal and reminds us all of how much we have in common, wherever our parents might have come from - James O'Brien
I thought I wouldn't be musicky enough. And then I started reading. I wish I'd started earlier! So moving. I'm having to read it in short instalments, which is a cruel constraint, but at least it means I have longer to go before finishing it. And I don't want to finish it ever - Nigella Lawson
Heartwarming, sharp and beautifully observed - Roisin Ingle
Oh, how I love Pete Paphides and this book. He can't write a paragraph that isn't funny or moving or insightful and often all three at once. For someone from a refugee family, like me, it just reads so true, but it's also a painting of another life so rich, so deep, that they should hang it in the National Gallery - Daniel Finkelstein, The Times
Unflinching and heartwarming - Adam Kay
Tender, clever and as funny as it gets ... a heart-piercing joy - Lauren Laverne
I ADORE this utterly wonderful coming-of-age memoir. Joyful, clever, and a bit heartbreaking - Nina Stibbe
Heartfelt, hilarious and beautifully written, Broken Greek is a childhood memoir like no other - Cathy Newman
So wonderfully written, such a light touch. Drenched in sentiment yet not in the least sentimental - John Niven
An absolute cherished read. Didn't want it to end - Annie Nightingale
Warm and eccentric, it's rightly being talked up as the Fever Pitch of Pop - Guardian
With its forensic attention to detail and exquisite unpacking of the pre-teen mind, Broken Greek is an intensely personal hymn that sings a universal tune. Like the very best pop songs, it gets under your skin, and stays there - i
Every single page is a joy to read, entertainingly but unsentimentally written ... This is one of the most enjoyable books I've read for a long time, a coming of age memoir that manages to be simultaneously tender, heartbreaking and laugh out loud funny - The Afterword
Epic childhood memoir - The Week
Utterly joyous - Financial Times
Entertaining, authentic and funny - Strong Words
A must-read for music fans - Sheerluxe
Such a heartfelt, genuinely affecting read - The Daily Express
A smart and nostalgic read - Magic FM
Endearing - Saga Magazine
Confessional, sorrowful and sublime - BA High Life Magazine
If you love music and how it weaves its way into our lives, this is a perfect read - Get Ready to Rock
A warm and welcome corrective to the typical music-themed coming-of-age tale - Radio Times
An extraordinary, moving and funny coming-of-age memoir - Love It! magazine
A love letter to cheesy 1970s pop - Telegraph
Funny and evocative - Guardian
A sweet and funny ode to the power of music - The Times
Anyone who has felt the power of pop to 'explain' their life to them, as Paphides has, will love this - Metro
There are a tonne of music-related memoirs by songwriters and music journalists out there, but this funny, soulful, coming-of-age autobiography will get under your skin like no other this year - The Big Issue
[Broken Greek] captures why the 1970s was such a weird decade and is also a loving testimony to the part music played in helping Paphides find a cultural identity. The book is also full of witty, authentic reflections on football, something you don't always find when authors horn in on the beautiful game. - Independent
Broken Greek took me on a fantastic journey back in to pop obsession and I loved it - Damon Albarn
Original, wry and radical - Mary Beard
This prize-winning memoir is a tender portrait of growing up between two cultures - Daily Mail
A delicious, music-mad coming of age memoir - Daily Mirror
Explains with enormous wit, warmth and pathos why pop music came to be [Paphides's] life-consuming passion - The Guardian
The model of the music-writer-memoir-with-a-twist ... enormous wit, warmth and pathos - Guardian
'Do you sometimes feel like the music you're hearing is explaining your life to you?'
I absolutely adored this book. I received an ARC from Quercus at the start of the year (thanks!) and put off...
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Pete Paphides is a well respected music writer and broadcaster , with a great record collection and a passion for pop music.
Broken Greek is his first book and it charts his vivid childhood memories alongside the...
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I listened to this on audiobook and it took me right back… to a childhood of pop music, Top of the Pops, Woolworths, Wimpy and being able to smoke on the top of metropolitan buses. All in the 1970s/80s.
Takis, who...
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