Head and Tales

An old storyteller dies in one of the squalid labour camps that surround the building of Britain's canals. His final wish is for his children to find the safety of their grandmother's house. In order to help them, he asks that the head be cut from his corpse to guide the children home. The camp butcher obliges, and the children set off on their perilous journey. But whenever they face danger or despair, the head comes to life and tells a story. Stories chilling and hilarious, stately and scurrilous, are strung on a narrative thread that is quite literally spell-binding; a class of 9-year-old children I shared this with were mesmerised by the exhilarating dread and delight of the adventure. This is a great book.