A spinoff of"When I Werea Lad"featuring sad and adorableimages of meerkats as theydo their best to escape grinding poverty and make a better life for themselvesAlready it has generated spin-offs "When I Werea School Lad" and "When I Werea Nipper." Here, instead of ragged trousered 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. Meerkats get put to work down the mines, go toseaside 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 Werea Lad.""