“Her adventures are refreshing and totally hilarious.” - Elizabeth Berridge, The Telegraph

"...brims with unusual optimism as well as his customary wit" - Amanda Craig, Sunday Express

"The book, generally so witty, so vivacious and so original, is a gem" - Francis King, The Spectator

Hetty, a spirited sixth-former, always found more comfort in books than in her own family.  When a violent quarrel with her father reveals a secret that upends everything, she does the one thing left to her: she runs.  Hetty lands in a Birmingham boarding house crowded with oddities and eccentrics and sets out to trace the truth of where she came from and where her future lies.

Resolute and sharp-tongued, Hetty carries us through a Britain of riots and reinvention, marches and music halls, boarding-house intrigue and half-buried family history.