Dark Flood
It’s the summer holidays, and Archie, Kyle and Deela are hanging out together. The history of the town lies beneath their feet, defunct coal mines running underground. Everyone knows the mine flooded in 1815 and seventy-five men and boys perished. The three friends argue about the point of digging up the past, and all must deal with the absences or the weight of their present family life. Archie takes care of his grandfather while his Mam works. Kyle has a social conscience already formed by cynicism. His friends are his family. Deela has to negotiate her family’s closer control. All three are bullied by the Robson brothers, who live on Archie’s street. Archie’s grandfather taught him to play the fiddle, their most precious possession, but his grandfather has emphysema from a life working the old mines. When he is rushed into hospital, a violent flood and a mysterious boy send Archie on a perilous journey into the mines to relive the past. His friends must try to save him and his grandfather’s fiddle.
This a beautiful, funny and humane book, so evocative of long school holidays during which bored kids with no money lark about in favourite places. A frontispiece map traces these places for the reader; and the end of the book has a glossary for the Newcastle dialect which subtly pervades the dialogue and lifts it off the page. Archie is particularly endearing, and we feel for him and his friends as they respond to the things children have no control over: bullies, parental power, money, the lies that must be told, and the cycle of life and death. His struggle to overcome grief and achieve authentic self-expression is a journey many young people will relate to; but I think every young person would enjoy this.
