I was surprised by how much I liked this book despite its simple premise. Warning to the wise - you may not like the main character at all for a good part of the first measure of the book. That's because the main character, Col, belongs to a family of criminals and he couldn't be more (though ...
Many of the parents were there. Mothers, fathers, carers. Mosi even saw Patrick’s granny, a big broad woman with her blonde tipped hair cut in a fashionable bob. ‘Why did you come?’ Mosi asked his father. His father put his hand on his shoulder. ‘Have you heard about the body?’ Mosi nodded. ‘We a...
Ralph Aird, the scumbag of the school with a father to prove it – or so I’d always thought. But am I any better than he is? Is this God getting his revenge on me for being so rotten to Ralph in the past? Well, I don’t deserve it. Thank goodness for Diane. She ran with me outside the supermarket a...
I met another of our neighbours, Mr McCurley, who lived in the flat opposite. He came out of his door very quietly and gave me a very tiny smile. He was a big giant of a man who wore a cardigan and always carried a shopping bag. Mum said he looked weird and I was to keep well clear of him. Ming, ...
Exaggerating, of course, making it sound much more exciting than it had really been. In Roxy’s version, the driver had almost caught her, and she had had to hide in the undergrowth while he searched around for her. When she’d found the gate, Stevens had been lurking there, and she’d had to distra...
“They’re coming for us.” Gary’s voice was a whisper. “That’s what he said. They’ll get the lot of us.” I held his arm, felt it tremble under my fingers. “You heard what Claude said. They’re going to get us all. And we cannot tell anybody that.” I knew he was right. “Well, ...
Horrifed that my soft, golden hair now stood out in spikey, unsightly tufts on my head. I had cut it. I had chopped it. I put up my hand to flatten it down, but it just kept springing up again. Kaylie came over and hugged me. ‘What have you done?’ she said again. ‘I saw her,’ I began, then, remem...
I had no intention of ever writing young teenage fiction. I thought I was going to be a comedy scriptwriter – I had two series on the radio and was having scripts developed for television. Then one night when my daughter, Katie, was on the way to the school youth club she was attacked by a gang o...
Instead, she and the Mighty Zola battled it out. Her concentration was gone, however, for she hardly won a game. Cam’s name still appeared triumphantly above her own. Mighty Champion. She began to shake the machine, urging the game to go in her favour. ‘Hey! Hey, you!’ Suddenly Simmy’s son, Taft,...
‘Plenty of time for us to contact the dead,’ Jazz whispered. I had wondered all the way to her house if I was doing the right thing coming here. Maybe I would only be making things worse. But when Jazz said that, I laughed. The idea of summoning the spirits before ten o’clock was so ridiculous it...
He nodded over to where she stood at the corner of the English department corridor with one of the girls who had made friends with her. Shannon Farrell. ‘You think I’m gonnae go over and chat her up with Shannon Farrell there?’ Shannon Farrell was the kind of girl who could freeze you with a look...
When I looked around, there was Wizzie and her gang, grinning at me. I found my voice at last. ‘What are you gawping at?’ I yelled at them.It was Sonya who answered. Sonya with her stutter.‘S-s-somebody nobody likes.’Once I would have snapped back at her, made a fool of her. Now I couldn’t think ...
I was lying on the floor, must have fainted. There was a movement in the hall. Something outside the door. I closed my eyes. I couldn’t bear to look. The door opened. I heard soft footsteps. The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was Paul Forbes crouching over me, looking concerned. I sat up...
‘I’m not giving you the inhaler at all if you stay here! What do you want to stay for?’ He didn’t wait for an answer. ‘The two of you are daft. I’m trying to help you here.’ He actually believes that, Liam was thinking, though at that moment coherent thought wasn’t something Liam could do. He cou...