“I didn’t want it to end. Tense, joyous, terrifying, comic, tender, magic and tragic! Just like childhood itself.” Willy Russell
A policeman lies trapped in a Liverpool cellar.
Only two girls know the truth, but they’re too scared to tell.
The nightmare begins in 1970s Liverpool. Rebecca and Debbie are scared of everything. Rebecca’s parents are fighting – will they split up? Will Debbie’s … Rebecca and Debbie are scared of everything. Rebecca’s parents are fighting – will they split up? Will Debbie’s father go to prison – again?
School is frightening with teachers using the cane.
But they’ve learned to fear the police as well so when a nasty policeman chases them and falls into the cellar of a derelict house they become trapped in a terrifying secret.
As the search for the missing policeman begins they find themselves in more trouble than they could ever imagine.
Will they reveal their awful secret when the consequences could destroy their lives?
This dark crime thriller is a real page-turner that you won’t be able to put down.
Evocative of Liverpool as it really was in the 1970s this suspenseful black comedy will grip you from the start to the end.
Ireland’s Late Show Host, Ryan Tubridy, described Piggy Monk Square as like ‘Misery with two nine-year-olds at the helm.’
If you like Roddy Doyle, John Boyne and Patrick McCabe’s The Butcher Boy, you’ll love Piggy Monk Square.
Praise for Grace M. Jolliffe
‘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. 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… Grown-ups don’t listen to the likes of Sparra. The punch leaves you gasping.’ Rachel Hore – The Guardian
‘Capturing the vividness of childhood…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 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
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Rather odd fears of two, little girls causes them to act what they feel is cautious.
But in reality their actions in an unfortunate accident are extremely questionable!
Sad story. In that time and place neighbors don’t trust the police, what a waste even for fiction.
Excellent re-creation of a 9-year-old working-class girl in Liverpool: convincing language. We see only what she sees, but we understand a lot more. Excellent story, characters come alive… and very instructive. The novelist herself grew up in a neighborhood like this. Cops treat working-class white people there the way American cops too often treat Blacks. But that’s not the theme of the book. There’s a great plot.
The first line of Piggy Monk Square by Grace M. Jollife set the tone for the style of writing to follow. I knew right away I would like this story. “My name’s Rebecca but me mates call me Sparra cos of me legs.” (p. 1). Set in a poor section of Liverpool where to have a job is considered lucky, the story is told through the eyes of a nine-year-old, “Sparra.” In the first few pages, we can determine that no one in the neighborhood trusts the police. Predatory child molesters lurk everywhere. Whether this is true or not, the reader does not know for sure, but we do know that Rebecca believes it to be true. This is an excellent exposition of several stories that readers will discover for themselves as Rebecca and her “bezzie,” Debbie show us a world that is full of despair as far as adults are concerned. With one exception, Debbie and Rebecca accept the world as it is and make their world as pleasant as possible.
Piggy Monk Square is the name of an area with a collection of abandoned houses or tenements. Why they were abandoned, or their planned future use, is unclear and the two young people don’t care. The two claim an underground room, perhaps a basement or cellar, as their secret clubhouse. They claim the room and use parts of furniture left behind to create their own world. However, the area is patrolled by police and one day the two are visited and given a warning to not return. They ignore the warning and know they are in trouble when the same policeman catches them again. When the officer attempts to descend into the basement, he falls and injures or breaks his leg to the extent that he can not get out of the room. The two girls flee, unaware that the officer is seriously injured.
The girls are surprised when they return a few days later to find the officer still there. He is alive and breathing but very weak. His radio no longer works and there is no other person that patrols the area. He needs the girls’ help. They decide to help the officer by wrapping him in enough bandages to make him a mummy. The two know that in their world mummies live forever. That is not true for the police officer and he dies. (Not a spoiler). The rest of the novel will take place in this context as life goes on for the girls. They do not seem to have an appreciation for the seriousness of death. They accept the officer’s death and swear many “pinky” oaths to keep secret their involvement. For a lengthy period of time, the girls hear TV announcements about the on-going search for the missing policeman.
Rebecca has more important things to worry about. Her mom and dad have always had a stormy relationship. Often, Rebecca has seen that her mom and dad love each other. But there are fights. During the time of the policeman incident, Rebecca’s dad stormed out of the house and stayed away. Her mom made excuses by saying he was working a lot of overtime. Sparra’s relationship with her father is close, she prefers her father to her mother, who she thinks is cold and unfeeling. The mother comes across as a self-absorbed person with not enough room in her life for a child. Rebecca’s concern is totally fixed on the idea of having a united and loving family. A dead policeman is of little concern, no one likes police anyway. They are a part of the enemy along with a government that has little concern with the welfare of the people.
The relationship of the police and government with the poor people of Liverpool is another element of broad context for this novel. Resentment of police is justified based on several incidents in the story where police are abusive and contemptuous in relation to the public. In one case during an interview with Rebecca’s mom, while police are looking for the missing officer, one policeman implies that Sparra’s mom has a price, one he is willing to pay.
I was very happy with this novel and its presentation through the eyes of a young girl as her perceptions of the world develop. Humor is present as Sparra and Debbie get some things wrong in their interpretations of adult interactions. I give this novel five Amazon stars due to excellent writing. This is even though the ending is one I found objectionable and abhorrent. Rarely am I offended by such an ending and then still give the work five stars. I was surprised by the ending, but it was not a good surprise. I can accept that it is a realistic ending but that doesn’t make it good. This is advertised as Book One in a 1970s Liverpool Series.
The writing style is so entertaining that I will read more by this author. Perhaps she will write a sequel to this novel and expand the ending of this one. This is a stand-alone novel; there is not a cliffhanger. This sells for USD 5.99 on Amazon but through the mysteries of marketing, I managed to pay USD 0.99. It is worth the higher price.
Was sorry I read it. Felt I wasted my time. Two 9 year old friends play in an abandoned section of town with a tragic consequence and that’s it. Very disappointing.