Blind Scouse - Jimmy Walker

Blind Scouse is a gritty coming-of-age novel set in the back alleys and dance halls of post-war Bootle, Liverpool, a world of pigeon lofts, pea-wack soup, and the surge of rock and roll.

Joey Riley and Tony McNulty are two working-class boys with swagger, secondhand guitars, and a dream. Their lives unfold among truant officers, pawnbrokers, Irish Catholic priests with secrets, and the restless energy of a city on the brink of change. Saturday nights mean the Iron Door and the Cavern Club, where future legends take the stage and the boys absorb every note.

From these streets, a band is born. What begins as a rough three-chord sound soon becomes something real. With the arrival of new members, Johnny and the Rebels transform into Blind Scouse - a group edging toward notoriety.

But as the music rises, so does the darkness.

Set against the heroin wave of the 1960s and 70s, the novel traces a descent into addiction, crime, and consequence - through broken relationships, personal collapse, and lives pulled in different directions. And yet this is not only a story of loss.

It is also a story of loyalty, survival, and the stubborn persistence of joy, of people who fall, endure, and find their way back, however imperfectly. Inspired by the author's own experiences, Blind Scouse takes its name from the humble stew of the poor, something simple, sustaining, and far richer than expected.