Synopsis
'An astonishing work' - Joanne Harris
Every parent's worst nightmare became a reality for Ian Clayton. On a short holiday break in Hay-on-Wye he took his nine-year-old twins canoeing, and in a freak accident his daughter Billie was drowned. In a remarkably frank and vivid way Clayton describes what happened on that spring day, his desperate attempts to save his two children, and then what it felt like two years later to come face to face with the men who hired out the canoe.
But Our Billie is not a story of bitterness and recrimination. Instead it's the story of how a family attempts to come to terms with something which makes no sense at all. Through his memories of Billie and his wonderfully affectionate portrait of the small town in Yorkshire where the family has lived for generations, he weaves a story of loss and remembering, of gratitude and forgiveness.
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Tony Lacey, Editorial Director at Penguin on the Our Billie book launch and on being locked in with Richard Hawley:
"I’ve been to a lot of book launches in my time but Ian Clayton’s Our Billie in Featherstone was easily one of the best: 400 people, three MPs (I do realize they’re people too…), the mayor, the Wakefield Youth Choir, and a surprise appearance by superstar Richard Hawley who sang a couple of acoustic numbers. After Billie’s death Ian set up a Fund to raise money for distributing musical instruments to deserving kids in west Yorkshire, and each year he puts on a concert to raise money for the fund. This year we piggy-backed onto the concert and launched the book there.
The highlights of the concert apart from Richard Hawley were an amazing performance of a Michael Jackson song by a ten-year-old who told me forlornly afterwards that he’d failed to progress in Britain’s Got Talent – which it really must have in spades if he’s not considered good enough; and Billie’s twin, Edward, who survived the canoeing accident, played the piano, neatly moving from the theme from Top Cat to a bit of Mozart’s 21st Piano Concerto. Sounds bizarre but it was expertly done.
I was approached by two of the MPs afterwards and I asked them if they were both Labour. ‘Aye, but not New Labour,’ said one immediately. ‘Well, I don’t know…’ said the other defensively. I asked Jon Trickett if he was likely to be re-elected, and he nodded confidently. Ian overheard and said they don’t bother to count the votes in that part of Yorkshire – they just weigh the Labour votes, which are always threatening to bust the scales. Ian lives at the confluence of three constituencies – he could walk between all three in less than an hour – and all are heavily Labour. I didn’t quite have the opportunity (courage?) to tell Yvette Cooper that I’d published The End of the Party, but at least her husband Ed Balls wasn’t there as I’d been told he might be. I might have had to hide behind Ian, who’s an 18-stone former Rugby League player. Still, it’s impressive that three MPs turned out on the Thursday night before Good Friday.
But the best was still to come. We drove off for a lock-in at the Shoulder of Mutton pub in Castleford, where Richard Hawley played until 1 in the morning. What a voice! What a guitar player! And what a privilege to be there."
Product details
Format :
Paperback
ISBN: 9780141042336
Size : 129 x 198mm
Pages : 280
Published : 01 Apr 2010
Publisher : Penguin
Other formats for Our Billie:
» ePub eBook: eBook : £5.50
Our Billie
£6.99
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