Julia Eccleshare's Pick of the Month, October 2015 Sandi Toksvig’s mini-epic is a roller-coaster of a read that races headlong through an important slice of history bringing it vividly to life as it does so. Slim, a young girl growing up in Ireland at the time of the potato famine, tells the sometimes harrowing but nonetheless always hopeful story of her family’s plight at home and flight to a better life. When Slim’s idealistic but unworldly father swaps the family pig for the letters of a printing press because he believes that the power of print will free Ireland from its oppressive landlords, he sets off a chain of troublesome events that lead to the family emigrating to America. Life on the long sea-voyage across the Atlantic including new friendships and terrible tragedies, the hope, disappointment and then renewed hope on arrival are all recounted in a lively manner. Sandi Toksvig brings alive important-to-know radical history by dressing it up in a fine coat of adventure. ~ Julia Eccleshare
Because of the potato me and my family left our home and travelled 6,000 miles to find a new life...Slim Hannigan and her family are poor but happy. Theirs is a life filled with love and laughter - and a pet pig called Hamlet. But things change overnight, and suddenly they find themselves facing hunger and danger like they have never known...So they leave their village in Ireland to journey to America where, they hope, family and fortune await them. Slim soon finds herself living a life that feels just like one of those far-fetched stories her Da has always told. Can one brave girl keep her family together no matter what is thrown at them...?
Beautifully observed, written with wit and warmth, here is a truly life-affirming book. Michael Morpurgo
Author
About Sandi Toksvig
Following a first-class degree from Cambridge, Sandi Toksvig went into the theatre, where she both wrote and performed before becoming one of the founder members of the Comedy Store Players. She is well known for her television and radio work, as a presenter, writer and actor. She has written four books for children including Unusual Day, published by Young Corgi in 1996.