The lives of three generations of a Sheffield family are cleverly interwoven in this Carnegie Prize winning novel. Eighteen year old Jess is about to leave home for the first time and, with the family gathered, she hears the lives of her parents and grandparents.
Jess is leaving home - just about to set off for a year’s adventure in France but somehow before she goes she must reveal some long held secrets with family and friends. Everyone and everything she has ever known is here, and she doesn't want anything to change. It's what she's scared of most. Jess has one terrible secret and if she goes away the person who comes back might never be able to let it out. But, sitting together with the various generations of her family, and each of their secrets and stories are told, it seems to Jess that change and growing up is a part of everyone's lives. And maybe, just maybe, that's not such a bad thing after all. A well-deserved winner of the prestigious Carnegie Medal in 1987 and as relevant today as when it was first published.
Berlie Doherty is one of the UK’s favourite children’s authors. She has been writing for over twenty years and is published in more than twenty languages. She is a prolific writer of novels, storybooks, picture books, and plays. Berlie lives in Derbyshire
