Chapel writer's first children's poetry book explores his tough 90s/00s childhood

From gloopy nettle soup to third-hand bath water and a birthday cake full of baked beans, a new children's book brings to life a Chapel en le Frith writer's challenging, but happy, nineties and noughties upbringing.

We are Family: Six Kids and A Super-Dad, which is published next month, uses rhyming verse to tell the remarkable, everyday story of Oliver Sykes, his five siblings and their single dad.

In 1997, when Oliver was just eight years old and a pupil at Warmbrook Junior School, now called Chapel-en-le-Frith CofE VC Primary, his mum walked out, never to return. Dad Chris quit his job at the Ferodo factory, to pick up the reins at their packed to the rafters three-bedroom council house.

Learning on the job, and sometimes making hilarious mistakes along the way, Super-Dad Chris developed his own brand of tough but nurturing parenting for his boisterous brood of four boys and two girls.

One of the poems, called Press-Ups, details his standard punishment for any misbehaviour in the household: "Get down and give me ten," he would say.

Chris's wartime-style cooking also takes a gentle bashing in the book, as Oliver conjures up memories of poached rabbit stew with the shot still in it, slimy, smelly foraged nettle soup, and a birthday cake padded out with unorthodox ingredients, including baked beans, turnips tops and spam. Chris's Romany heritage meant that turning to poaching, fishing and foraging to support his family when times were tough was second nature.

Other childhood memories brought to life in the book, which is illustrated by Carnegie medal-nominated Ian Morris, include fishing for their supper at nearby Combs Reservoir and climbing up Castle Naze hill fort.

Oliver, who until recently lived in Chorlton, south Manchester, before moving to North Wales, said: "My 'Super-Dad' was hot on discipline and ran a tight ship. We were up early every day to fit in breakfast, household chores, homework and paper rounds before school.

"He didn't always get it right, like any parent, but we knew where we stood with him and always felt safe and cared for, which is the most important thing."

Oliver hopes that young readers can recognise something of their own lives in his poems, particularly young people whose families may be struggling.

He said: "With austerity and the current cost of living crisis, unfortunately even larger numbers of young people will be experiencing the financial hardships that my family dealt with when my mum left. I hope in reading my poems they feel seen and less alone.

"My poems are full of hope and joy and love. I don't look back on my childhood as a bad time as there was fun, comradery and love in abundance. There was never much money in the pot, but there was always love and laughter around the Sykes family table."

Dad Chris is a big fan of Oliver's poems, though he refutes that he was ever a Super-Dad, saying, "I was just a resilient, determined, tough man who wanted the very best for his children, as every parent should.

"I did my best to raise the children. I'm not a saint, but I'm a devout, old-fashioned Christian, and, like my namesake Saint Christopher, I just wanted to carry my children safely from one side of the river to the other, and ensure that they were well educated and self-reliant."

We are Family: Six Kids and A Super-Dad is Oliver's first poetry book and it will be released by Otter Barry Books on 9 May 2024.

Oliver has previously published two children's picture books. Alfie’s First Fight, also illustrated by Ian Morris, was named illustrated young reader of the year at the 2023 Children’s Literature Festivals Book Awards. A theatre adaptation went on a national tour 2022-23. The follow up, Fishing For Rainbows, was published last year and a show based on the story is currently on tour.