Product Description

Another sweeping novel of power and compassion from this exceptional writer. Madeleine Horrocks wanted nothing more than to be famous. Pretty and outspoken, she often alarmed her best friend Amy by expressing doubts - about parents, teachers and, most of all, religion, which according to their strict 1950s Catholic upbringing in Rivington Cross seemed certain, Amy thought, to send them both to Hell. What, after all, was wrong with being a Protestant, Madeleine would ask? Or a Jew? The good-looking boy they both noticed on their way to school was, it was rumoured, Jewish - his family having fled from Poland at the beginning of the war. Father Sheahan, the whiskey-soaked priest from the local church, had discovered that his secret past was catching up with him, and went in fear of his life. Amy, too, had a secret - a secret which caused her to visit the Bell House, an ancient charnel house outside the village. As they grow up, this place of death becomes a meeting place for the friends, who have to learn that differences in religion can cause unexpected heartache.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #97670 in Books
• Published on: 2005-06-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 549 pages

From the Inside Flap
Madeleine Horrocks wanted nothing more than to be famous. Pretty and outspoken, she often alarmed her best friend Amy by expressing doubts – about parents, teachers and, most of all, religion, which according to their strict 1950s Catholic upbringing in Rivington Cross seemed certain, Amy thought, to send them both to Hell. What, after all, was wrong with being a Protestant? Madeleine would ask. Or a Jew? The good-looking boy they both noticed on their way to school was, it was rumoured, Jewish – his family having fled from Holland at the beginning of the war.

Father Sheahan, the whiskey-soaked priest from the local church, had discovered that his secret past was catching up with him, and went in fear of his life. Amy, too, had a secret – a secret that caused her to visit the Bell House, an ancient charnel house outside the village. As they grow up, this place of death becomes a meeting place for the friends, who have to learn that differences in religion can cause unexpected heartache.

From the Back Cover
Madeleine Horrocks, pretty and outspoken despite her strict 1950s Catholic upbringing, doesn’t understand why religion seemed to force people apart. Surely, she would argue to her friend Amy, believing in God should be all about love and forgiveness, not hatred?But Amy has been brought up to believe that mixing with other religions would result in eternal damnation, and when Maddy becomes friendly with George, the good-looking Jewish boy who lives nearby, Amy fears the worst. But as they grow up she, too, becomes friends with George, as well as with other young teenagers who are Catholic, Anglican – even Methodist. They would all meet secretly at the Bell House, an ancient place of burial, but when a body is found in the nearby reservoir they become threatened by tragedy and danger.

Father Sheahan, the whisky-soaked priest from the local church, has meanwhile discovered that his secret past is catching up with him.Bigotry, lust and hatred have been so much a part of this community that it takes the combined forces of young and old – and particularly George’s formidable grandmother Yuspeh – to make everything right again.

About the Author
Ruth Hamilton is the bestselling author of A Whisper to the Living, With Love From Ma Maguire, Nest of Sorrows, Billy London's Girls, Spinning Jenny, The September Starlings, A Crooked Mile, Paradise Lane, The Bells of Scotland Road, The Dream Sellers, The Corner House, Miss Honoria West, Mulligan's Yard, Saturday's Child, Matthew and Son and Chandler's Green. She has become one of the north-west of England's most popular writers. Ruth Hamilton was born in Bolton, which is the setting for many of her novels, and has spent most of her life in Lancashire. She now lives in Liverpool.

Customer Reviews

A delightful, superb, brilliantly written book.
What an amazing book. Truly fascinating in the literal sense of that word - I was unable to take my eyes off the page. Humorous to the point of being hilariously funny at times, yet sad in a way that reveals the writer's seemingly fathomless depth of understanding of human frailty, that element that makes us human.

What a superb writer. What a truly superb book. Both my wife and I were captivated and will seek out her other books, but with that fear of our expectation raising hopes that may not be realised; that nothing could possibly match what she's written here.

I'm running out of superlatives. Just buy it, for chrissake!