Already it has generated spin-offs: When I Were A School Lad and When I Were A Nipper. In 'Meerkat', instead of raggedtrousered children scrabbling around the streets, getting put in perilous positions - the stock in trade of the previous books - the north of England is populated with a small number of meerkats. they do their best to escape the grinding poverty and poor schooling to make a better life for themselves. Meerkats get put to work down the mines, go to Blackpool for their holidays and mess about on trams. the meerkat world and the human world easily intermingle in a reworking of many of the photos first used in When I Were A Lad.