In Bloom

Francis Wootton starts this story in Newcastle as a very normal 15-year-old. He has an older brother Chris whom he adores, a mother with whom he gets on well, an absent father and a grandmother with a talent for candour.

A diagnosis of leukaemia changes everything. Francis remembers his behaviour with a teacher who had cancer. Francis and his friends were not exactly understanding when she began to take days off and to look exhausted – behaviour he now regrets.

At hospital Francis meets Amber, a fellow patient. She is sharp and witty, from an unconventional family. Her mother is a huge fan of ‘crystal healing’ (imagine how Francis’s caustic granny responds to this information).  Slowly Francis and Amber become close. Now we have a multi-dimensional emotional matrix involving the two of them and the various members of both families. It’s a complex picture.

There is a huge trap awaiting any author of a book like this. It is really easy to turn the characters into stereotypes, acting in a consistent and predictable way – at the expense of any humanity. Crow avoids this trap with great skill. We find his characters utterly believable. In short, we wonder what they will do next.

This is a compelling story with three-dimensional characters, a powerful dramatic momentum and a convincingly sad denouement. I hope that some imaginative cinema producer is already taking out his cheque book.