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Jonathan Tulloch was born and bred in Cumbria. He was educated by Augustinian friars. He has written three previous novels, The Season Ticket, winner of the Betty Trask Prize and filmed as Purely Belter, The Lottery and Give Us This Day. He featured on the Times Literary Supplement list of the twenty most promising young writers, and recently won the J.B. Priestly Award. His work has been translated into five languages. He is a regular contributor to The Tablet, the leading international Roman Catholic weekly.
Sonny Gee is the foul-mouthed, school-skipping boy of a junkie mother in Gateshead who just happens to have the face of an angel. Unable to cope with the boy, her addiction and her abusive boyfriend, Sonny's mother trundles him from home to home until she wears out her welcome at every safe haven left. In desperation, she abandons her son to her estranged father Joe, an ex-miner crippled by years of coal drilling and betrayal from his only daughter. Sonny and Joe circle each other warily - the old man unwilling to love or trust again, the boy unable to. Sonny's neglected life astounds Joe: he doesn't know how to use a knife and fork, eats crips for breakfast and steals cigarettes. Joe confuses the boy with his lack of television, his gnarled hands and his constant refusal of help. Somehow, like the allotment they silently work on, a hesitant understanding develops that just might be love. Tulloch's touching yet gritty tale stays one step ahead from out and out preaching with its strong cast of affable and recognizable characters, along with some very real demons. Sonny Gee and Joe's tragic story is at once beautiful, sad and painful. (Kirkus UK)
