Berlie Doherty

I bought Abela over a year ago, and read the first chapter, then due to many factors I put it to one side to read lots of other books in between. I returned to it only yesterday and have just put it down now. What a beautiful book. It is one of those few perfectly formed, eloquently written and superbly characterized books that you struggle to put down and will stay in your mind for days to come.

The themes of love, loss and security are universal, but the story itself is a unique one that show more explores topics of adoption, trafficking, illegal immigration and even FGM. It is narrated from both protagonists' points of view - 13 year old Rosa in Sheffield, and 9 year old Abela first in Tanzania and then in England, with Abela eventually being adopted by Rosa's mother, Jen. There is a special poignancy in the way that Abela's childlike fears, hopes and perspectives are contrasted with the adult way of looking at things, and I was moved to tears at times. show less

I remember the first time I heard this story. When I was eight, my teacher read this story to the class and I blame it fully for laying a foundation stone for my interest in history. Jim Jarvis is, at the start of the book, basically Oliver Twist – he escapes from the workhouse and tramps the streets of London, going from one awful situation to another. In the end, he finds his liberation in the form of a benevolent benefactor, the founder of the Barnardos childrens’ homes. This story is show more wonderfully accessible and deeply moving. Doherty is a true storysmith, and her characters inspire love and disgust in equal measure. I would recommend this to anybody, especially to those trying to get children interested in the Victorians. show less

A short coming-of-age story about love and leaving home as experienced by several generations of a working class family. On Jess’s last evening at home, her grandparents and parents tells stories about growing up in the 30s and 50s respectively, and then Jess reflects on her own experiences.

There are all sorts of interesting details in here: the grandparents who married against their parents wishes; the granny who was a “buffer girl”; her father’s feelings about the prospect of show more National Service; the way the family coped with Jess’s older brother’s disability and then with his death. I liked the way telling these stories side-by-side shows how times changes and also how people take different paths to adulthood, but I thought the book was a bit disjointed and wished it had focused more on some stories and less on others. Some of the prose is lovely, and as a whole this book is… oddly melancholy and memorable.

The sky was rushing to early sunset. The clouds were tinged with apricot. I could see our house from here, and the spread of Sheffield away from it, with street lights already pricking out the way the roads went. I was on the top of the Bole Hills, the windiest green in the world, Grandpa told me. There was a quarry here once. Some people say it’s really “bone hills” because it was built on an old tip, and when I think I’m standing on the bottles and bones and crumbling waste of long-dead families I feel dizzy, as if this tiny moment of the present and all the moments of my future are slipping away fast from me. show less

A time or mind travel fantasy featuring a blind girl, Laura, who becomes sighted when she meets the unicorn, Spellhorn and journeys to the Bright Wilderness with the Wild Ones. I love the unicorn mythology and Doherty's creation of the Wild Ones, part human, part animal, and their "picture-word" (based on Anglo-Saxon "kenning") language. For example, Sloe describes the exhausted Laura as "wearylegs and eye-droop." Of unicorns, she says: "They seem to belong to a better time, a simpler time, show more that we all have a yearning to go back to." I feel this way sometimes, and that is why I love good fantasy so much. Backmatter by the author reveals that the story was originally written for radio with children from a school for the blind. She also includes beliefs about unicorns and a brief interview. show less