Volume 1: 'THE BLACK JOKE' ...
... a cross between Treasure Island, The Railway Children and Deliverance. It is by turns exciting, amusing, charming, alarming, winsome, violent and strange - a rollicking read for adults with a childish love of adventure, and for children who aren't afraid of a few long words.
There's a skeleton in the tunnel, a pair of loathsome bullies in the classroom, a mysterious ship in the harbour and vague rumours about missing treasure. But ... pirates? Oh, come on, surely not. That would be ridiculous. You don't get pirates any more ... do you?
You will meet ...
• the fearsome Urethra Grubb, the worst woman in the world ...
• the emphatic Rosella Prettyfoot, who wears big boots and knows how to use them ...
• the sinister Trinity Teague, who disappeared and has now come back ...
• the odorous Billy Moon, and his mother Primrose who's no better than she should be ...
• and the slightly bewildered Pertinacious Potts and his annoying sister Fenestra, who have to make sense of it all and know that no good will come of it. Probably.
Reviews of The Black Joke
"... an extremely well written book with three dimensional characters that you quickly grow to love or hate. It is hard to put the book into any category as it is set in an imaginary West Coast village at the end of the nineteenth century but has a cast of characters that include a crew of pirates from a century earlier and has a plot involving secret passages, treasure and characters that could have come from Dickens, Dylan Thomas or Mervyn Peake. It also manages to be a book for adults or older teenagers as any one who appreciates good writing will love it. The book ends with many trailing loose ends and a sequel must be on the way. I hope so because I want to spend more time in this village and see what happens to the cast of characters. Highly recommended ..." - Sheddweller
"I was looking for an entertaining read for the Christmas break and a friend recommended this book to me. It didn't disappoint. With an elegant and easy to read prose style, the author takes you on a rollickingly journey full of wonderfully fleshed out characters. The children are likeable for their naive but determined approach to the challenges they face and some of the adults are all the more likeable for their grotesqueness. I found the book by turns funny, sad, exciting and shocking. I agree with 'Sheddweller' that a sequel must be on the way and I can't wait to read it. Suitable for teens to the more mature reader, I would heartily recommend this book." - PB
You can buy The Black Joke on Amazon.co.uk in the UK, or on Amazon.com in the US, or on any other European version of Amazon.
If you prefer to use a digital reader, go to Smashwords where you will find it in a variety of formats - EPUB, MOBI for Kindle, LRF for Sony e-readers, PDB for Palm readers, as well as TXT, RTF, PDF and HTML for laptop or PC.