Buddy (Hinton novel)

Buddy

Cover of the first edition.
Author	Nigel Hinton
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre	Teenage fiction
Published	July 1982, J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd (original) Penguin Books (current UK publisher)
Media type	Print (Hardback, Paperback, E-book)
ISBN
Followed by	Buddy's Song
Television adaption: Buddy (television series)

Buddy (1982) is a novel written by Nigel Hinton. The main characters are Buddy Clark, his mother Carol Clark, his father Terry Clark and Julian and Charmian Rybeero. The story deals with issues such as racism, thieving and child neglect.

The book was made into a television series starring Roger Daltrey as Buddy's father Terry in 1986.

It was the first installment in the Buddy trilogy and is followed by Buddy's Song (1987) which became a film (starring Chesney Hawkes and Roger Daltrey) in 1991 and Buddy's Blues (1995).

Buddy is still widely used in English lessons at British and Irish secondary schools, sometimes with the TV series to compare the two media.

Nigel Hinton had great difficulty trying to start to write Buddy. The story had changed a lot by the time Nigel finished writing it. Buddy was originally nine years old, his name was Stuart and he thought his cousin was a spy and he liked tea.

Buddy has a hopeless father who is an aging rocker, interested only in rock and roll and motorbikes, living on the fringes of the under-world. When Buddy's mum walks out, the two manage to strike up some kind of relationship – until Buddy realizes that his dad is involved in something more serious than he suspected. A moving, totally convincing account of a boy's faltering relationship with his father, this story all takes place in a house on 56 Croxley Street.

Buddy is a young boy who is often picked on for being poor. He lives with his parents. It all started when Buddy wanted some money for a school trip and he was unable to go on previous school trips because he did not have the money. When his mother told him she did not have any money to give him, Buddy ended up taking the money from her purse. At the end of the day, his mum found the money missing and asks Buddy where he put the money, after revealing that he did take the money, his mum said "Like father, like son", as his father was previously sent to prison for breaking and entering. Before leaving she added "thief", and left Buddy crying. The next day Buddy found out his mum had left. Four months later, with his mum still missing, he was often called dustman at school often by his teacher and his classmates due to the state of his clothes, the amount of money in his family and also because he is friends with black twins Julius and Charmian who were also picked on.