The Pig Bin

'Your mind's full of rubbish, Morley, just like that pig bin.'The Pig Bin is a laugh-out-loud novel about the embarrassing escapades of a war time adolescent. Morley Charles is a shy Catholic boy with a stammer. His mother disapproves of most of his friends; his father is away at the war; his uncle is a black marketeer, and the drunk lodger staying with them is a source of shame. Morley has started exploring his body, and is desperate to find the right word to describe the sinful pleasure he's just discovered so he can make his confession and not go straight to hell if a bomb falls on him. Things start to look up, however, when the American serviceman who's sweet on his neighbor gives him a brand new lumber jacket. May, his aunt, is generous with the affection his mother seems unable to show. If he pretends to be French his stammer miraculously vanishes, and his artistic talent might give him a future at the Balsley School of Art. With the war nearly over, all he needs to do now is find that word.