6 Quotes by Helen Laycock

He really just wanted to blurt out, ‘My Grandma’s dead’, but he knew that when it came to it, the words would stick like pebbles in his throat.

That winter everything changed. Stella had lost not only her twin but her best friend. Bayonie was never mentioned again, so that, in time, Stella wondered if she really had ever existed.

As their eyes became accustomed to the light, the girls were startled to see the figure in front of them. Hunched over, wearing a dark cloak, was an old man. His long, white hair straggled over his shoulders, his skin was covered with grey whiskers and one of his eyes, hooded, drooped below the other bulging one. His mouth hung open and his yellowed teeth did nothing to stop his rank breath pervading the air.

And then, just as Toby’s eyelids were beginning to droop, from nowhere, came the distant singing of a female voice from across the sea.

Mrs Moonsong sat in the tiny room lit only by flickering candlelight and a small beam of moonlight which slanted through the small roof window.

Isn’t it strange how one child can be so lucky, when not a stone’s throw away another child’s life has taken quite the opposite direction?