Book Description
Tommy Loy moved to the West of Scotland new town of East Kilbride as a troubled teenager, and by 1970 he has robbed, fought, and terrorised his way to the top of a very small tree. His attempts to move further up the ladder leave him dead at the side of the road, murdered for his mistakes, but his legend lives on in the town. By 1979, the legend is fading, but his young family are still living with the consequences. His son, Billy, delivers milk to the houses, while the float drivers he works for deliver misery to the local low life.Rivalries are rife between the teenage boys making the deliveries and the adult drivers who run the town in the early hours of each day. The Milk Boys gives a snapshot of East Kilbride in the 1970s and the town’s decline as the factories begin to close, leaving the people who were living the dream in despair. The optimistic New Town story is destined to have an unhappy ending.Friendship, drugs, football, violence, and punk rock are the backdrop to how the Loy family learn about the truth behind Tommy’s legacy. All of it fuelled by the pints of milk delivered to your door.
Scott Rule was born in East Kilbride. He studied Humanities at Thames Polytechnic London and has previously written radio and television sketches with The Comedy Unit for various BBC programmes. He is a member of the pub rock band The Moes. The Milk Boys is his first novel. He lives in the South Side of Glasgow with his wife and son.
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28 reviews
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As an EK punk band member from when the book is set, I had expected some reminiscing . I was thankfully not disappointed although you could write a whole book about the EK punks. There was plenty of reminiscing for me and the book took me back to some of the places I hung about at as a teenager. The Milk Boys creatively captures that time. The characters are made real by relating them to places I already know. Although EK focused it could be anywhere in the UK at that time. Once started reading I could not put it down. I wanted to know what happened to who and when and the only disappointment I had was when the book was finished.
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Great read
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Great book. couldn't put it down. love books about Scotland but then... I’m biased
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This book gave a fantastic trip down memory lane of growing up in East Kilbride. Although I am younger than the characters in the book, it gave a tremendous insight to my own childhood and teen years and learning where many of the activities I participated in came from.
I thoroughly enjoyed The Milk Boys from cover to cover and I cannot recommend it highly enough. What makes it even more special for me is knowing that this is the authors debut novel. Wow. Tremendous writing, very well developed characters and very much a reflection on growing up street wise, with good humour thrown into the mix. It captures East Kilbride perfectly at a time when the town was run by the people for the people. An utterly outstanding read.
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