Books by Mick Jackson

The second children's book from the wonderful illustrator John Broadley, working with Booker-shortlisted novelist Mick Jackson, following their glorious debut While You're Sleeping.

Have you ever wondered what's happening in the world while you're asleep in your bed? Bakers, firefighters, postal workers, doctors, nurses, wildlife and more! This is the perfect book for bedtime, opening up a whole world of wonder and imagination for children.

By Mick Jackson, adapted for the stage by Nick WoodStage adaptation of Mick Jackson's celebrated novel (1997), which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, the Whitbread First Novel Award and winner of the Royal Society of Authors' First Novel Award.Adapted by Nick Wood, critically acclaimed playwright and bestselling author of A Girl With A Book and Other Plays; his works are performed extensively in the UK, USA and Europe.Co-produced by Nottingham Playhouse (co-producer of the critically acclaimed stage version of 1984) and Nick Wood's AJTC (A Girl with a Book). A life of fascination, obsession and deep scientific curiosity.William Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck is an eccentric Nottinghamshire aristocrat whose imagination and curiosity know no bounds. This deceptively simple man struggles to come to terms with a world that is teeming with new knowledge, ill-founded opinion and gossip.Why does he hide himself away? What is his fascination with tunnels? Will he ever unearth the secrets hidden in his memory?In a sequence of events that are often curious and frequently hilarious, he reveals moments of surprising perception and wisdom. The Underground Man is a delectable blend of fact and fiction in which the intriguing details of a complex life are richly explored through the vibrant imagination of a gentle soul.

One of the most acclaimed novels of recent times, The Underground Man is the fictionalised diary of a deeply eccentric English aristocrat. The duke has just completed a network of tunnels beneath his estate. His health is failing, but his imagination seems to know no bounds. And while he spends more time underground and retreats ever deeper into the darker corners of his house there are some ghosts that demand to be acknowledged and some memories which insist on making themselves known.

Something strange is going on in the village. A dead pig is carried through the lanes in a coffin, a heap of signposts are buried in a field and a mummy walks the streets late at night, scaring the local ladies half to death. Things have never been the same since the evacuee arrived and the Five Boys mistook him for a Nazi spy. It is as if someone is out for revenge. The village has had a whole host of visitors since: the Americans are down the road preparing for D-Day and a deserter is hiding out in the woods. But it is the arrival of the Bee King which makes the biggest impression. He is a law unto himself, has his own strange rituals and the villagers fear that he is beginning to exert the same charm over their boys as he does over his bees. The second novel by the highly acclaimed author of The Underground Man confirms Mick Jackson's originality and talent.

Ud fra historiske fakta og de rygter, der stadig verserer på egnen om virkelighedens Tunnelmager, den meget excentriske femte Hertug af Portland, William John Cavendish Bentinck-Scott (1800-1879), har Mick Jackson vækket denne mystiske Hertug til live og skabt en fascinerende og sprudlende roman og en af litteraturhistoriens mest uforglemmelige hovedpersoner.Hans Nåde, Hertugen af Portland, lever sit liv som excentrisk eneboer på sit gods i Nordengland. Her får han bygget et enormt system af kilometerlange tunneler, så brede, at to hestevogne kan passere hinanden. Han drives omkring på sit gods i en ensom søgen, pint af et uhåndgribeligt savn, hvis oprindelse afdækkes gradvist, såvel for hertugen som for læseren. “Jeg banede mig vej hjem gennem Cow-close-skoven, hvor jeg fik øje på en enlig skades dovne, dykkende flugt. Jeg spyttede to gange, løftede min hat og sagde: »Godmorgen, hr. Skade,« og derefter så jeg mig omkring for at sikre mig, at mit lille ritual ikke var blevet overværet af nogen. Jeg tror minsæl, at jeg bliver mere overtroisk for hvert år, der går. Engang ville jeg have kastet en sten efter fuglen. Nu kryber jeg sammen som et forskræmt barn.”

Året er 1941. På flugt fra de tyske bombardementer ankommer en lille london-dreng, Bobby, til en landsby i Sydengland, forvirret og knuget af savnet af sin mor. Her er der fred, sådan da. For landsbyen har sine egne fredsforstyrrere, lømlerne De Fem Drenge, der hurtigt får et godt øje til Bobby, som de er sikre på er tysk spion ...Sådan åbner denne underfundige roman om et alt andet end døsigt landsbyliv i England under 2. verdenskrig. Som historien skrider frem, møder vi byens andre, mere eller mindre sære eksistenser og oplever sammen med dem, hvordan krigen kommer tættere og tættere på, indtil den dag amerikanske tropper kommer rullende i jeeps og lastbiler for at gøre egnen til træningslejr før D-dag.Mick Jackson, født 1960 i Great Harwood, Lancashire, England. Har i en årrække arbejdet med teater og studerede teatervidenskab ved Dartington College of Arts. Brød i 1997 igennem med romanen Tunnelmageren (eng. The Underground Man), som blev shortlistet til både Booker-prisen og årets Whitbread Award for bedste roman 1997. Jackson har desuden skrevet Fem drenge (eng. Five Boys), Ten Sorry Tales (2006) og The Widow’s Tale (2010).