The Death of the Hurdy Gurdy Boy - Some reviews

'The Death of the Hurdy Gurdy Boy' started out as a story for my teenage daughter.  Cross over fiction is now very popular with a general readership picking up novels originally aimed at a younger readership.  Think Harry Potter and Hunger Games.  Nothing wrong with that, young people have been enjoying adult novels since the days of Jane Austen, why not share in the other direction?  J.K. Rowling and Suzanne Collins are well aware of the potential. My writing for theatre has always been predicated on the idea that anyone can access a good story and get something out of it and what holds good for drama must hold for other art forms.  And that doesn't mean that the writer needs to back pedal on the issues. Younger people respond well to be treated as adults and having their intelligence challenged.  So the good writer neither talks down to a younger audience nor dilutes what they are saying and the language they use to say it. 'The Death of the Hurdy Gurdy Boy' and its companion novels  deal with the ideas of homelessness, death and loss of family, poverty but it also has the positives of perseverance, companionship and love. And because it's me writing them, they are also funny and whimsical with a rich language and, I hope, a banging good read..

 Here are a couple of the reviews that are coming in from Amazon.

Well written story with an insight to a boys life in the past and his new found friend of the future. Good conclusion and would recommend it to my friends.

An anytime book which will leave you wanting to read more.. Actually it’s a good holiday read for a sunny day under a brolly with a jug of crushed ice. I enjoyed it. Easy Kindle bought and easy to read. 

The Death of the Hurdy Gurdy Boy

My new novel, The death of the Hurdy Gurdy Boy is now available on Kindle from Amazon. Click on this title for the link. Here is the opening paragraph

It wasn’t a good night to die. If I’d had a choice it would have been a quiet night in summer. Warm and still. All the stars shining above. Strolling home with a few pals having a laugh and a joke after a good meal of steak and onions. Then sort of lying down on a big feather bed and drifting off gently with the sound of music and merriment coming out of one of the pubs. Then I’d dream of kind faces and stuff out of the past. So I wouldn’t know anything about dying at all. Not huddling in a lousy shop doorway with the wind whipping my fingers and ears so that I could hardly bear the pain of the cold any more. My teeth long since given up chattering. They didn't have the strength. And this frock coat with the silk lapels was only thin. Very smart but it didn't give no protection. I banged my hands together to get some warmth going and looked up at the candlestick in the window with all the candles blazing looking warm and welcoming. But not for me. All I could feel was the pain of the cold in my ears and cheeks until suddenly, there was a sort of explosion in my head. A different sort of pain. A shower of golden stars behind my eyes and I was pitched forward out of existence.