Pop

Kitty Aldridge

If you're looking for a feel-good story about an orphan and her long lost grandad - avoid this book! I'm glad I read it though - try it for yourself and see if you don't find Maggie and her Pop haunting you long after you've forgotten other, easier types.

Extract

Pop watches the donkey chewing daisies on the verge while he finishes his fag. 'Pity that, we were wearing him down. We'd have had him if we'd kept at it'. He winks at Maggie. 'Ah well,' and tosses away his fag, before he too strolls back to the bar, 'Come on then mate'.

When he pokes his head around the door some ten minutes later to check where she's got to, he discovers Maggie rubbing the animal's nose, stroking his ears and feeding him Fox's glacier mints from her pocket.

Parallels