A Very Unusual Pursuit by Catherine Jinks

JUDGES' COMMENTS 

Catherine Jinks has called on her love of history to weave an atmospheric novel set in Victorian London. Orphan Birdie McAdam, small for her 10 years and with a beautiful singing voice, is the perfect bait for catching bogles, the shadowy child-eating monsters that frequent chimneys, wells and any other dark and hidden places in London’s East End. Birdie is apprenticed to Mr Alfred Bunce, a bogler of high repute. When two very different women enter their lives - Sarah Pickles, a female Fagin, and Miss Edith Eames, a folklorist, - some big changes are in the offing.

With her meticulous attention to detail Jinks evokes the poverty, mistrust, fear of change and the vast differences between rich and poor of the era. Her characters are strong, but vulnerable, the settings authentic and the dialect realistic. She beautifully depicts the relationship between Birdie and Alfred as one of mutual trust and caring, through good times and bad. They face some life-changing decisions amidst kidnapping, blackmail and betrayal as they try to find and destroy the bogles responsible for the latest spate of child disappearances. But are they the culprits? Are bogles the worst monsters threatening the lives of the orphans? Jinks has combined history, fantasy and mystery to create this superbly written suspense-driven adventure in the dark and fetid alleys of 19th century Bethnal Green.