Childhood
Born at 11 Valley Road, an interwar council house in Grove Hill, Middlesbrough, Brian Clough was the sixth of nine children of a local sweet shop worker, later sugar boiler and then manager. The eldest, Elizabeth, died in 1927 of septicaemia at the age of four. When talking of his childhood he said he "adored it in all its aspects. If anyone should be grateful for their upbringing, for their mam and dad, I'm that person. I was the kid who came from a little part of paradise." On his upbringing in Middlesbrough, Clough claimed that it was not the nicest place in the world, "But to me it was heaven". "Everything I have done, everything I've achieved, everything that I can think of that has directed and affected my life – apart from the drink – stemmed from my childhood. Maybe it was the constant sight of Mam, with eight children to look after, working from morning until night, working harder than you or I have ever worked."
Although a naturally bright child, in 1946 Clough failed his Eleven-plus exam, and attended Marton Grove Secondary Modern school. He later admitted in his autobiography that he had neglected his lessons in favour of sport, although at school he became head boy. Oddly enough, Clough stated in his autobiography 'Walking on Water' that cricket, rather than football, was his first love as a youngster, and that he'd have much rather scored a test century at Lords than a hat-trick at Wembley. Clough left school in 1950 without any qualifications, to work at ICI and did his national service in the RAF Regiment between 1953 and 1955.
Read more about this topic: Brian Clough
Famous quotes containing the word childhood:
“Toddlerhood resembles adolescence because of the rapidity of physical growth and because of the impulse to break loose of parental boundaries. At both ages, the struggle for independence exists hand in hand with the often hidden wish to be contained and protected while striving to move forward in the world. How parents and toddlers negotiate their differences sets the stage for their ability to remain partners during childhood and through the rebellions of the teenage years.”
—Alicia F. Lieberman (20th century)
“and I really hope no white person ever has cause to write about me
because they never understand Black love is Black wealth and
they’ll
probably talk about my hard childhood and never understand that
all the while I was quite happy.”
—Nikki Giovanni (b. 1943)
“Children became an obsessive theme in Victorian culture at the same time that they were being exploited as never before. As the horrors of life multiplied for some children, the image of childhood was increasingly exalted. Children became the last symbols of purity in a world which was seen as increasingly ugly.”
—C. John Sommerville (20th century)