The Prentice-Boy

In 1820, aquatint artist William Daniell of London hires Jesse Cloud, a homeless teenager, as his apprentice. But all is not as it seems. An eventful East Anglian tour impels both on their own inner journeys, exposing others’ betrayals and exploring their own possibilities. Faced with bankruptcy, starvation looms. The artist must learn how to see and his prentice must learn how to survive – while the truth shatters all.

During a career in education, Ray wrote several articles for academic journals and his work for a national charity led to a PhD. In 2013 Ray began a campaign to rescue a local bookshop scheduled for closure. A group of volunteers formed a new, not-for-profit community bookshop, and Kett’s Books has evolved successfully ever since. A professional theatre company toured Suffolk and Norfolk in 2016 with Ray’s play about the life and work of George Crabbe. Crabbe’s 1810 poem Peter Grimes tells the tragic story of three apprentices ‘farmed out’ from a London workhouse. This led to the creation of Jesse Cloud, a homeless teenager fleeing the workhouse and one of the central characters of The Prentice-Boy.