About this ebook
When Neil Cross was five years old, his mother left him. No note, no phone call, just an empty house and a brow-beaten father. Two years later, she came back for her son. She was not alone.
Neil's new step-father was a South-African white supremacist. He was a serial adulterer, a thief, a con man, a racist and a liar. And in many ways, he was the perfect father. In their backstreet Edinburgh slum, Derek Cross introduced Neil to Tom Sawyer, Kidnapped, and The Three Musketeers, and whilst his step-son battled violent anti-English racism everyday in the playground, Derek discovered a new way to isolate his family; he became a Mormon Bishop in the Church of the Latter Day Saints.
This is a story about being raised a racist and an outsider - and overcoming it; about family and step-family; about class and religion; and about how resentment breeds violence. And it's about what, in the end, the love of books can do for you.
Neil's new step-father was a South-African white supremacist. He was a serial adulterer, a thief, a con man, a racist and a liar. And in many ways, he was the perfect father. In their backstreet Edinburgh slum, Derek Cross introduced Neil to Tom Sawyer, Kidnapped, and The Three Musketeers, and whilst his step-son battled violent anti-English racism everyday in the playground, Derek discovered a new way to isolate his family; he became a Mormon Bishop in the Church of the Latter Day Saints.
This is a story about being raised a racist and an outsider - and overcoming it; about family and step-family; about class and religion; and about how resentment breeds violence. And it's about what, in the end, the love of books can do for you.
When Neil Cross was five years old, his mother left him. No note, no phone call, just an empty house and a brow-beaten father. Two years later, she came back for her son. She was not alone.
Neil's new step-father was a South-African white supremacist. He was a serial adulterer, a thief, a con m...
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About the author
Neil Cross is a novelist, screenwriter and show-runner best known as the creator and sole writer of the multi-award-winning crime thriller Luther, starring Idris Elba, for which he has twice been nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing.
Other screen credits include the international hit horror movie Mama, the acclaimed BBC spy drama Spooks, Doctor Who, Hard Sun, Mosquito Coast for Apple TV+ and The Sister for ITV and Hulu, as well as the 2023 feature film Luther: The Fallen Sun for Netflix.
Neil is the author of eight novels including Always the Sun, which was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and Luther: The Calling, winner of the Ngaio Marsh Best Crime Novel Award. His bestselling memoir Heartland was shortlisted for the PEN/Ackerley Prize.
Other screen credits include the international hit horror movie Mama, the acclaimed BBC spy drama Spooks, Doctor Who, Hard Sun, Mosquito Coast for Apple TV+ and The Sister for ITV and Hulu, as well as the 2023 feature film Luther: The Fallen Sun for Netflix.
Neil is the author of eight novels including Always the Sun, which was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and Luther: The Calling, winner of the Ngaio Marsh Best Crime Novel Award. His bestselling memoir Heartland was shortlisted for the PEN/Ackerley Prize.
Neil Cross is a novelist, screenwriter and show-runner best known as the creator and sole writer of the multi-award-winning crime thriller Luther, starring Idris Elba, for which he has twice been nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing.
Other screen credits include the international ...
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