Voice in the Flames

Praise for Riverskin: "Shaped by Teesside dialect and filled with punchy, poetic coinages, this atmospheric debut brings local legend into the everyday." Guardian"Bold, daring and memorable." Phil Earle"The atmosphere lingers long after the last page." The Times Children's Book of the Week"The Little Mermaid meets Skellig but with discarded shopping trolleys and techno." The Times“I am the works. I’ve been there an age. I wus there when they burnt strong. I made it so.”Jack wishes life could be how it used to be, back when his mum was still around and his dad worked at the old steelworks. Now the works are closed, towering silent and forbidding over the rundown estate, and Dad is out all hours delivering parcels to make ends meet. Then Jack stumbles upon Sal: a strange, spindly old man with candles in his hair; a man who asks Jack to set him alight. Sal claims to be a spirit of the old works, who with Jack’s help can bring it back to its former glory. Jack is drawn to the man’s promises and the hope it holds for his whole family. But at what price?