And a well-spoken man was he.
He says: ‘I have two sons, my boy, in fair Bristol town,
And orphans I fear they will be.’
And then up stepped the little cabin boy,
And a pretty boy was he.
He says: ‘Oh, I grieve for my own mother dear,
Whom I shall nevermore see.’
‘Last night when the moon shined bright,
My mother had sons five,
But now she may look in the salt salt seas
And find but one alive.’
Call a boat, call a boat, my fair Plymouth boys,
Don’t you hear how the trumpets sound?
For the want of a long-boat in the ocean we were lost,
And the most of our merry men drowned.
Taken from The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs, edited by R. Vaughan Williams and A. L. Lloyd
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks, as ever, to a wonderful group of people who have made writing The Pearl in the Ice not just possible, but a delight. I’m lucky to have a wonderful agent, Hilary Delamere, whose wise advice and infectious enthusiasm have been invaluable. My publisher, Barry Cunningham, cheerily stepped in with suggestions and I’m a grateful recipient of his enormous story-making experience. Rachel Leyshon, my glamorous editor, both reassured and pushed for a more cohesive, thoughtful and nuanced text and I’m incredibly lucky to have had her encouragement. Thanks also to Rachel Hickman who took the enormous pile of images I supplied and calmly came up with such an enticing vision for the book. Elinor Bagenal is the best person to set a book free and watch it fly to distant lands. Thanks are also due to Laura for her quiet, determined patience with the final stages of the text as well as Daphne for the rigorous copy-edit. And then the legends: Jazz, Lucy, Esther, Kes and Sarah who make Chicken House a wonderful place to be part of. I’m also grateful to Helen Crawford-White for the dramatic cover design. Thanks also to Nina for her deft hand at pushing a writer who was definitely born to blush unseen. It’s been an enchanting journey.
Outside the coop, I’d like to thank Jane Fior who took the time to read The Pearl in the Ice along the way and steer me away from choppy waters with wise counsel. And my writing group, Ange, Fatima and Sarah who have kindly commented on my writing for years and years and years.
And then to Charles – thank you, thank you. For the tea, for the support, for our world. (You still owe me a runaway house.) Here’s to future fun. Thanks, too, to my glorious roaring boys, M and R, and of course my wondrous, resilient ‘little’ S. Thanks also to Rhiannon.
This is, very obviously, a work of fiction and so I decided, from the very earliest sketches, to blur the history and write in the spirit, rather than the letter, of the past. But three real people’s experience informed the concerns underpinning The Pearl in the Ice. The first is that of my grandfather, who served on HMS Vengeance at the battle of Jutland in 1916. In thirty-six hours, eight thousand British and German men and twenty-five boats were lost but my grandfather was one of those lucky men who came home. My great-uncle William was not so fortunate. He was twenty years old when he was killed by an exploding shell in Northern France, just one of millions who lost their lives on the death-clogged fields of the First World War. His parents never recovered from the loss of him. Such is the waste of war. A third ghost hovers at the very edge of these pages: my mother. She gave me a most precious gift – infinite love and a language to express it in and as I get older, I become ever more grateful to her. It was also from her cheek that I stole that final, parting, pearl-shaped tear. How she would have loved to have stayed longer.
ALSO BY CATHRYN CONSTABLE
THE WOLF PRINCESS
On a school trip to Russia, Sophie and her two friends find themselves abandoned on a train. They are rescued by the glamorous Princess Anna Volkonskaya, who takes them to her winter palace and mesmerizes them with stories of lost diamonds and a tragic past.
But as night falls and wolves prowl, Sophie discovers more than dreams in the crumbling palace of secrets . . .
It’s got everything I looked for in a book: adventure, mystery, a touch of romance; elements of fairy tale, good triumphing over bad; best friends; a gorgeous horse – and wolves to boot.
BOOKS FOR KEEPS
This story is exciting, heart-warming and totally satisfying. Curl up with Cathryn, jump on that unexpected train and steam through the snow – wolves and a magical palace await you.
LOVEREADING4KIDS
Paperback, ISBN 978-1-910002-09-4, £6.99 • ebook, ISBN 978-1-908435-55-2, £6.99
ALSO BY CATHRYN CONSTABLE
THE WHITE TOWER
Livy’s best friend has died. Lost in grief, she wonders if she’ll ever feel normal again.
She starts at a new school, Temple College. By day, she struggles to fit in – and by night, she’s inexplicably drawn to the roof of the ancient White Tower. Climbing fearlessly among the turrets and stone angels, she has the strangest sensation – of weightlessness, of blood burning in her veins. Up here, somehow, it’s as if she might fly.
But others are watching Livy among the Sentinels – others to whom the secret of flight is one they’ll do anything to discover.
A delicious mix of contemporary school life, ancient mystery and dreamy magical realism.
THE BOOKSELLER
Paperback, ISBN 978-1-909489-10-3, £6.99 • ebook, ISBN 978-1-910002-08-7, £6.99
TRY ANOTHER GREAT BOOK FROM CHICKEN HOUSE
THE WAY PAST WINTER by KIRAN MILLWOOD HARGRAVE
Mila wakes to find her brother Oskar has vanished. He wouldn’t just go and yet a golden clue suggests he’s followed a stranger who visited after dark. Then she learns that all the boys in the village have gone . . . except one – the boy-mage called Rune.
Together Mila and Rune set out to find them – in an extraordinary journey across mountains overrun by wolves to
