Frequently Bought Together
Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought
Bad Things by Michael Marshall
£11.87
|
The Intruders by Michael Marshall  (16)
|
The Intruders by Michael Marshall  (11)
£3.97
|
What You Make It: Selected Short Stories by Michael Marshall Smith  (24)
£5.99
|
Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith (58)
£5.49
|
Product details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
See all 3 customer reviews...
Product Description
A uniquely dark and elegant tale that illuminates the loneliness of childhood, the pain of loss and the power of imagination. It will charm and haunt its readers in equal measure. Eleven-year-old Mark is bored. He spends his days on the Brighton sea-front, practicing on his skate-board. His mother is too ill to leave the house, and his stepfather is determined that Mark shouldn't disturb her. So when the old lady who lives in the flat downstairs introduces him to rock cakes and offers to show him a secret, he's happy to indulge her. The old lady takes a large, old-fashioned key and leads Mark down a dusty corridor to a heavy door. Beyond the door is a world completely alien to Mark's understanding. For behind the old lady's tiny apartment, the house's original servants' quarters are still entirely intact, although derelict. Mark finds himself strangely drawn to this window onto the past, and when, the next time he visits, the old lady falls asleep, he steals the key and goes to visit the servants' quarters alone.And suddenly Mark's life takes a bizarre turn, as the past seems to collide with the present, dreams invade reality and truths become apparent to this hitherto unperceiving boy.
From the Author
WHAT IS IT?
The Servants is a short novel about a boy who's forced to leave his home, friends and father in London to come live with his mother and her new husband. He doesn't get along with his step-father, he's bored and lonely, and his mother is unwel, and getting worse. But one night Mark meets the old lady who lives in the basement of their house, and his life starts to change...
WHERE?
The book is set in Brighton, on the south coast of England. A town with a dodgy past - someone once described it as a place that looked like it should be helping the police with their enquiries - but very striking Regency architecture. It's in one of these houses that Mark discovers the old servant, and begins to wonder if it's as abandoned as everyone thinks...
WHY "M. M. Smith"?
Because it's quite different to the conspiracy thriller novels I write under "Michael Marshall". This novel is about a young person coming to terms with changes in his life, the first foreshadowings of impending adulthood, and learning to trust his own imaginings and intuitions. In some ways it's closer to the short stories I've written under the name "Michael Marshall Smith", but it's perhaps even more personal than those. So please allow me to introduce you to... M. M. Smith. I hope you like it.
Suggested Tags from Similar Products( What's th |