Again I’m asking for help with the final edit of my latest novel, Reggie. Would you be willing to read this brand new novel before it goes to print? Sent to you electronically with the one plea that you give me feedback.

Briefly, as the blurb for the back of the book says, Reggie is a ten year old mixed race boy with a single mother and a nan who hides a dark secret. Life has always been tough with ominous visitors, fights and a killing, trouble always lurking. He is constantly anxious for what he doesn’t understand. Making friends has not been easy. But Reggie is determined, whatever the odds, to find the truth and make life better for those he loves. Although it is primarily the boy’s story, it is also written from two other characters point of view, the young woman commuter, Sonia, and Ernie, the man on the allotment. It is Reggie’s actions which instigate a change for the better in both their lives.

Unlike The Greenhouse Legacy the ideas for Reggie are relatively recent. I often note down images or scraps of overheard conversations which I find interesting. The two I used here were of a child swinging on railings absorbed in the song he was singing. The words and the tune I could not hear, but his total absorption in what he was doing caught my eye. The other stimulus was a mannequin’s head in a lighted window seen from a stopped train, on one of those occasions when a carriage is lined up next to a block of flats. It was surprisingly lifelike and for a couple of seconds I thought that it was a woman staring back at me. As Reggie became an older child, the doll’s face became the source of fear and intrigue.

• Once you have read Reggie, we will ask you to complete a survey which will take you no longer than ten minutes. I may use your feedback as endorsement for the novel.

The cover created by Drew Westcott https://drewwestcott.co.uk/, is based on my descriptions of a particular flower growing on the fencing around the allotments. As you will see from the above photograph, the image comes close to reality.

So if you would like to help out by reading an advance copy, please use the sign up form below.