My Turn. Memoirs by Norman Wisdom With William Hall. The story of Norman Wisdom who was in foster care as a child and as a 14 year old was working as a cabin boy on a cargo ship heading to Argentina. Norman Wisdom's early years could easily have come straight from the pages of a Dickens novel. Left by their frightened mother, ill-treated by a brutal father, Norman and his brother were forced to fend for themselves, sleeping rough in London and stealing food to survive. (William Hall, who assisted Norman Wisdom in the writing of his life story, is a biographer, broadcaster and critic. He is the author of more than a dozen biographies, including Michael Caine, James Dean, Frankie Howerd, Larry Adler and Dick Emery.)