Paranoid, witful, lazy, the young Adolf Hitler turns up in Liverpool to stay with his brother Alois and sister-in-law Bridget. Hailed by Alois as a student and an artist, Adolf soon irritates his family beyond measure by his constant sponging and his tendency to get into serious trouble with the English. Surely this is a young man who will never amount to anything.
Young Adolf was published in 1978 and was Beryl Bainbridge’s first and only historical novel until the 1990s. Many its characters are inspired by real people: besides the protagonist Adolf Hitler, there is his half-brother Alois, Alois’ English wife Bridget and their baby Pat. The story itself was largely inspired by a memoir of Bridget Hitler, published in 1941 and recounting Adolf Hitler’s alleged stay in Liverpool between summer 1912 and spring 1913 where she and Alois Hitler really lived at that time.