With characters as diverse Christ, the red-breasted robin and kings Arthur and Alfred, BLACK DIRT is the story of Frank – and the stories he tells George and Margaret, his adult children. Frank, lying ill in bed, finds his dying dreams haunted by figures from his past: his parents, and his older sister Iris, whose existence – and terrible crime – he has spent long years struggling to forget. Revealing the dark and sinister shadows that can shape a child's imagination, Nell Leyshon explores the boundaries of fantasy, where the familiar happy-ever-after ending of folk-tales, fairy-stories and fable is far from certain. Written in a lyrical yet spare style, BLACK DIRT explores the guilty silences that bind family members together – and sometimes keep them apart.
- ISBN10 0330420348
- ISBN13 9780330420341
- Publish Date 21 May 2004
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 19 June 2006
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Pan Macmillan
- Imprint Picador
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 192
- Language English