“Not that mouthful again,” said Dad.
We thought a little longer, and in the end we simply called her Joy.
A Note from the Author
I GREW UP IN A BIG FAMILY IN A small steep town overlooking the River Tyne, in England. It was a place of ancient coal mines, dark terraced streets, strange shops, new real estate developments, and wild heather hills. Our lives were filled with mysterious and unexpected events, and the place and its people have given me many of my stories. I always wanted to be a writer, though I told very few people until I was “grown up.” I’ve published lots of fiction for adults, and I’ve won a number of prizes. I’ve been a mailman, a brush salesman, an editor, and a teacher. I’ve lived by the North Sea, in inner Manchester, and in a Suffolk farmhouse, and I wrote my first stories in a remote and dilapidated Norfolk mansion.
Writing can be difficult, but sometimes it really does feel like a kind of magic. I think that stories are living things—among the most important things in the world.
