Without Warning & Only Sometimes

Without Warning & Only Sometimes: Scenes from an Unpredictable Childhood by
Kit de Waal

Reviewed by Jess
📕📕📕📕

Books set in the Midlands always pique my interest as it’s where I was born and raised and Kit De Waal’s memoir into early adulthood was no exception. Kicking off in 60s Birmingham, Kit grows up in a society struggling with race, class and gender, and her childhood story depicts her personal struggle with these issues.

Her parents, Irish mother and Caribbean father, throughout the book are clearly searching for escape or something better than what they have, particularly expressed by her mother becoming a Jehovah’s Witness, and the ways in which this impacted Kit and her siblings childhood is profound. Each chapter is almost like a new episode - it delves in on a scene, a window into their family life and working class issues, and I loved this style of writing as a tool for bringing the reader into Kit’s unpredictable upbringing with a real honestly and vulnerability. As she talks about their life at the edge of poverty, her desire to sing and hear music, a childhood without celebrations, her youthful naivety and frustration pull at your heart.

This is a really unique memoir and nothing like anything I’ve ever read before! Kit never punches down and there’s nothing disparaging or overly negative. It’s clear she has embraced what her upbringing was and has grown from it, and she uses this memoir to highlight what a true working-class background really means and the struggles these families face. Importantly, she showcases the strong bonds her siblings share and the ways in which your parents mold you as a person. I’m glad this story is out there for more people to learn from.