The Current - fiction authors S to V

Blood Red, Snow White

Marcus Sedgwick

Not many fans of Swallows and Amazons realise that the author Arthur Ransome was caught up in the Russian Revolution, met Trotsky and Lenin and fell in love with Trotsky’s secretary. This tale blends fact from Ransome’s own accounts with fiction and fairy tale to create a spellbinding love story.

9781842551844 Orion Children's, 2007

The Illumination of Merton Browne

JM Shaw

Merton Browne hides from the world in a dusty basement, finding refuge among the forgotten history books with a torch and a Tintin book and pretending he’s going to space. As he gets older, he thinks secondary school will be about learning, but mainly it’s about keeping out of trouble. Desperate to avoid the bullies, Merton retreats further into his imaginary world.

9780340933633 Sceptre, 2007

Rules for Saying Goodbye

Katherine Taylor

As an American teenager Kate is propelled from a quiet community to a happening life on the East coast where she battles with booze, drugs, unsuitable men and irritating jobs. It is a satirical, humorous, semi-biographical coming-of-age novel.

9780340933657 Sceptre, 2007

Finding Violet Park

Jenny Valentine

When Lucas Swain goes to a cab office late at night, he is intrigued by an urn of ashes abandoned on a shelf in the office. These are the remains of Violet Park, which Lucas contrives to steal with the help of his gran. He is convinced that Violet is trying to communicate with him and gradually finds out more about her life and the uncanny links with his missing father. This original and moving first novel won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize and is one of Richard and Judy’s best books for older readers.

9780007229628 HarperCollins, 2007