1980s
adulthood
Category=FBA
Category=XQB
coming of age
crime
eq_bestseller
eq_fiction
eq_graphic-novels-manga
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_modern-contemporary
eq_nobargain
Essex
injustice
love
miners strike
prison
strike
teenage
Product details
- ISBN 9781800422223
- Dimensions: 140 x 216mm
- Publication Date: 01 Nov 2022
- Publisher: SilverWood Books Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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It is May 1984 and the time of the miners' strike. Jarrod Brook, a rebel without a cause, returns to Brightlingsea, Essex, after being expelled from a state boarding school, to find that his mum has given his bedroom to a striking miner.
Along with his best mate, Colin, over a long, eventful summer Jarrod is drawn into petty criminality while also trying to impress Verity, an outspoken young feminist.
Then the repercussions of a drunken night out conspire to test the limits of friendship and to show how a well-meaning and quite innocent young man can end up behind bars.
Jim Westover was born in Kent in 1968 and grew up in Brightlingsea, Essex. He left school with one O-Level and fell into labouring work, including a year spent renovating old farm buildings in France. He later moved to London to study journalism and publishing. Around this time, he dabbled in poetry, and one of his poems won a BBC Reggae Writing Competition. He also wrote lyrics, and performed regularly with Colchester art punks, Maniac Squat. While working the nightshift at a media monitoring company writing summaries of newspaper articles, he took an MA in Fiction at Middlesex University. He currently lives with his partner in Bethnal Green, East London. 'Penknife' is his first novel.Visit www.penknifenovel.com to find out more.
