Thursday 30 June 2011

BUDDY

Good news today - Puffin are going to do yet another reprint of BUDDY. This book - my best-selling title - has now been in print non-stop for 29 years. It keeps chugging on and I keep getting great letters from individual readers about how it touches them, and from teachers who tell me how it still goes down well with classes after all these years and never dates. There's no doubt that the 1986 BBCTV series of BUDDY was a massive boost to the book and brought it to the attention of a really wide audience. I still get requests from people, schools in particular,  via my website (www.nigelhinton.net) for copies of that TV series and it's a pity that the BBC doesn't consider re-showing it. But the continuing success of the book proves that it doesn't need the help of TV anymore.



                                   The original hardback cover from 1982



                        Back cover photo of how I looked back then. So young!



            Paperback to tie in with the BBC TV series starring Roger Daltrey (1986)


                                                         Current cover

Wednesday 8 June 2011

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT

My latest book has just been published by Pearson. It is called GHOST GAME and their lead title in a new series, Heroes, which is aimed at boys who are reluctant readers.




The challenge for me when I was approached to write a book like this was to create a story which, at the same time as being easy to read and have 'boy appeal', was worthwhile. The market is flooded with violent trashy books and I wanted to write something which would be powerful and dramatic but have an emotional range and interesting, three-dimensional characters.

As the title suggests, this is a ghost story and I think it delivers all the necessary thrills and chills. At the same time, though, it deals with a boy who has suffered the terrible loss of his mother and younger brother. Together with his father, he is trying to create a new life in a new town. The frightening events which occur in the old house where they are staying temporarily also reflect the grief that father and son are trying to deal with.

Although it is primarily intended for the schools market - and there will be an amazing CD-Rom for classes to use as a teaching aid - I hope it is a stand-alone good read. It is not for sale in shops, but is available on all the usual internet sites.