The Year of the Ladybird

Graham Joyce

David is working in a holiday camp over the hottest summer of 1976 when new friendships, sex, love and ladybirds abound. The characters and the way of life they lead evoke perfectly an era of no holds barred. And the small boy watching David is not all that he would seem. This is written at a whirlwind pace and I just had to read it right through to the end.

Extract

The footsteps stopped again closer to the ventilator ... Slowly a head appeared ...
I sprang to my feet ... It was a child, a small boy. I had startled him and he put his hands to his face to protect himself though he made no noise ...
When he took his hands from his face I saw that his eyes were clear glass. I saw through the glass. When I say clear glass I mean I could see through them to the cloudless blue sky behind him.

Parallels