Red Ink

Description

Sometimes lies are safer than the truth When her mother is knocked down and killed by a London bus, fifteen-year-old Melon Fouraki is left with no family worth mentioning. Her mother, Maria, never did introduce Melon to a 'living, breathing' father. The indomitable Auntie Aphrodite, meanwhile, is hundreds of miles away on a farm in Crete, and is unlikely to be jumping on a plane and coming to East Finchley anytime soon. But at least Melon has 'The Story'. 'The Story' is the Fourakis family fairytale. A story is something. RED INK is a powerful coming-of-age tale about superstition, denial and family myth.

Julie Mayhew originally trained as a journalist, then as an actress, and she started writing because she hardly ever saw a script with a brilliant role for a girl or a woman. She is the author of RED INK (shortlisted for the 2014 Branford Boase Award) and the critically acclaimed THE BIG LIE. She is also prolific writer for radio, and has twice been nominated for Best Original Drama at the BBC Audio Drama Awards for her plays A SHOEBOX OF SNOW and THE ELECTRICAL VENUS. Julie is a recent recipient of an Arts Council England Award and a K Blundell Trust Award to research and develop stories in Berlin and in her hometown Peterborough, and she is currently under commission to write a free and modern adaptation of THE RAILWAY CHILDREN for Eastern Angles Theatre. She lives in Hertfordshire with her family, where she is host of short story cabaret The Berko Speakeasy. Website: www.juliemayhew.co.uk, Twitter: @juliemayhew, Instagram: JulieMayhew

Although Red Ink is billed as a coming-of-age tale, it would be a pity for older readers to dismiss it. There are so many nuances and such precise observations that Red Ink transcends categorisation. I loved it... -- Hope Whitmore * Independent on Sunday * This is a brilliantly observed story of grief, sacrifice and redemption - and the unbreakable bond between mothers and daughters * Daily Mail * Red Ink is heart-breaking and ultimately uplifting. * We Love This Book * This is a wonderful book about the damage that lies and myths can ultimately do to a family and how the truth, though harsh, really can set you free. * The Bookseller Children's Bookseller's Choice: February * This beautifully-written coming-of-age story is at once heartbreaking, and full of robust humour and hopefulness. Shot through with black comedy, and with a fantastically frank and funny narrator in Melon, this challenging and uncompromising young adult novel interrogates family, identity, memory and the myths and superstitions we create for ourselves. Powerful, unusual and enormously compelling, Red Ink marks out Julie Mayhew as a young adult author to watch. * Booktrust Books We Like: February 2013 * Following her mother's sudden death 15-year-old Melon embarks on a journey of discovery in this darkly funny, emotionally raw coming-of-age debut. * The Bookseller Children's Bookseller's Choice: February * Melon's distinctive voice narrates events past and present and captures the gamut of emotions experienced by a teenager who loses her mother and has to find a new identity. * The Bookseller Children's Bookseller's Choice: February *