The Last Days of Archie Maxwell

Full of love, humour and heartbreak, this beautifully crafted YA novella from the multi-award-winning author of Ketchup Clouds and My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece is a compassionate and distinctive tale of modern family life and its issues. Dads leave home all the time. It's not that unusual, really. Leon's dad walked out. So did Mo's. But Archie's? Well, that's a different story – a story that Archie must keep secret at all cost. Archie knows he should accept Dad for who he is, so he hides his turmoil until he can stand it no longer. With nowhere else to turn, he finds himself at the railway track. The track has been calling to him, promising escape, release. The only problem is, it's been calling to someone else too…Particularly suitable for struggling, reluctant and dyslexic readers aged 13+ Please note that this book contains mature content (with themes of homophobia, bullying and suicide) and language that some may find offensive.

Annabel Pitcher’ s novels  My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece,  Ketchup Clouds  and  Silence is Goldfish  have won and been shortlisted for heaps of prizes, including the Carnegie Medal. Annabel had the idea for her first book while she was travelling the world and wrote it in notebooks all the way home. Now she is happiest with her husband and two young sons living in the middle of nowhere (Yorkshire, actually), walking her dog and creating her warm-hearted, complex and brilliantly original stories.