this ain’t no fairytale

Speaking to Daniel Cullen , in his shed studio a week after he released his debut novel HOBS he told me he had been sitting on the notion of writing a story about the cave dwellers of Derbyshire for around seven years before finally getting it to print. The original idea came from a conversation with his mum, but he sat with it for ages before ‘it was stitched into another story’ he was working on A combination of lockdown, and the desire for his son to be the right age to read and enjoy it, was the push Dan needed to prompt him to get his book published. The time he gained during the initial lockdowns allowed him the space and perspective to weave together the separate sections into a finished folk tale, that I believe will capture the imagination of young and old readers alike. In the same way that the cult Netflix series Stranger Things appeals to adults, with significant nostalgic references and a heavy dose of childhood magic, I believe it is a book that has universal appeal - especially if you were lucky enough to grow up in a Derbyshire village like me and are more than a little bit familiar with the local dialect the characters use.

I read HOBS over the bank holiday weekend, and thoroughly enjoyed escaping between the pages that reward with vivid description,