‘A stunningly
well-written novel. I didn’t want it to end. Tense, joyous, terrifying, comic,
tender, magic and tragic – just like childhood itself.’
-Willy
Russell
‘Piggy Monk
Square is unbearably tense and utterly believable. The voice of its young
heroine is so beguiling and convincing that you feel that you've met her. And
then the story forces you to share her terrible secret. Like the last piece of
a jigsaw puzzle: illuminating and satisfying.’
-Frank Cottrell
Boyce
‘Nine-year-old
Rebecca, chirpy as her nickname, "Sparra", is the lively narrator of
this disturbing child's-eye view of 1970s Toxteth, over which the spectres of
poverty and police brutality hang. Her mum and dad quarrel and she hates
school, where the sadistic Mr. Shelby hits her for misdemeanors. Sparra and her
friend Debbie get their kicks roaming the streets, fighting their arch-enemies
Uffo and Lippo, laughing at the drunken antics of crazy Harold and his wife
with their dead baby's pram, and running from the man they call Stabber the
psycho-killer. Their favourite place is the cellar of a bombed-out house in
Piggy Monk Square, but that is spoilt when a scary cop warns them away. The
tables are turned when the cop falls into the cellar and lies there injured.
The real punch of this slice-of-life tale comes from the appalling isolation of
Sparra's childhood. Grown-ups don't listen to the likes of Sparra. The punch
leaves you gasping.’
-Rachel
Hore – The Guardian
‘Capturing the
vividness of childhood and the exuberant cadence of Liverpudlian childhood
slang. It’s a subtle but compulsively readable novel, combining the bittersweet
provincial nostalgia of, say, Meera Syal’s Anita and Me, with a dark and
subversive parable that has echoes of Whistle down the Wind.’
-Laurence
Phelan - Independent On Sunday
‘A gripping,
intriguing page-turner which bears testimony to the craft of Jolliffe… One of
its most appealing facets is the authentic use of language which at times
mirrors the first person appeal of the autistic teenager in Mark Haddon’s The
Curious Incident Of the Dog in the Night Time. Grace’s Liverpool childhood has
helped her create a truly believable character in her book. It’s also laced
with some wry scouse humour too.’
-Mike
Chapple - Daily Post
‘Within a very
few pages this novel draws you in. Piggy Monk Square deserves success and would
certainly make a great film.’
-Maria
Ross - Publishing News
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