Extracts

Hidden in the shadows of the forest, Bo peeked under the low-hanging branches of a tree and watched the village children play a game.

I open my eyes and I am tangled in the sheets, books upside down on the floor.

Most people don’t expect cats and dogs to get along.

2020 was a year like no other.

‘Normal is a cycle on a washing machine’ is something my dad always told me.

The sickle moon had just slipped below the western horizon when the file of mounted men emerged from the trees.

My first ever race could have been a complete disaster.

I always thought the moment you met the great love of your life would be like the movies.

‘For young people who have never been through any of those things, or lived in a time when they were happening, this seems just frightful . . .

I would be lying if I said my mother’s misery has never given me pleasure.

Kiwi the Shih Tzu gets loose on the Thursday before the schools in the district let out for winter break.

On the day I was born, 3rd August 1986, ‘The Edge of Heaven’ by Wham! was number one.

Where will you be when your life ends?

Try to imagine two more different couples than these. You can’t.

Pripyat in the Ukraine is a place unlike anywhere else I have been. It is a place of utter despair.

I decided that Orion needed to die after the second time he saved my life.

Adjectives such as ‘singular’ and ‘extraordinary’ tend to be overused by biographers to describe the lives of the people they’re writing about, not to mention the publicists who are paid to promote their books.

Come now. On this mild summer’s night let us gaze upon two men who have known what it is to love and be loved, to hold and be held, and who now have only death for companionship.