Blinded By The Light Pb [Paperback]

Praise for DISCONNECTED: "Gripping from cover to cover, Disconnected is one of those books you really can't put down. I haven't been so impressed with a novel for quite some time now and Sherry Ashworth has, on the merits of this one novel alone, become one of my favourite authors! It's not often that a book makes me think I must go out and find some more of this author's work now, but that's the effect Disconnected had on me. I was well and truly blown away." Fiona McKinlay, teenage reviewer for whsonline.co.uk

A gripping thriller about a teenage boy sucked into the dark world of a cult.

Eighteen-year-old Joe is bored. Stuck at home after a bout of glandular fever, all his friends have left Manchester and gone to university, leaving Joe with nothing but his rather annoying family for company. When he meets Kate and Nick on the train, something about them appeals to him. So he goes to see them at their commune, a farm in rural Todmorden.

Gradually, Joe's life starts to make sense. With the White Ones he is wanted, and his life has a purpose. When he meets Bea at the farm, he really feels that his life is complete, and he decides to leave his family and live with the White Ones forever.

But there is something sinister about Fletcher, the Todmorden White Ones' leader. Fletcher seems obsessed with Joe - convinced that he is a Perfect, and someone to be venerated. A dramatic trip to the wildest reaches of Orkney will show Joe his destiny - and reveal some shocking truths.

Ages 14+

Sherry Ashworth was born in 1953 and grew up living in London. She studied English Literature at St Hugh’s College in Oxford and then Medieval Studies at the University of York.

In 1977, Sherry married and moved to Manchester, where she has lived ever since. That same year she started teaching English, which she has continued to do on and off to the present day. Literature, Sherry says, is her passion… both reading and writing – and explaining it! Sherry has contributed features for the Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Express, reviewed fiction for the Times Literary Supplement, and has also had columns in the Manchester Evening News and Big Issue in the North. She teaches creative writing, gives after-dinner talks and is also a regular guest on Radio 4’s The Message.

Sherry started writing for publication in 1989. She has now written a total of eight adult novels and three young adult novels, including ‘What’s Your Problem’, which was longlisted for Children’s Book of the Year Award in 1999. All of her books are set partly or wholly in Manchester, because, as she says, "of its vibrant working-class culture, its varied ethnic communities, and also because I know it so well".

Sherry lives in Manchester with her husband, two teenage daughters and two cats. The cats, she says, take a lively interest in everything she does, especially in the kitchen. Her daughters, however, find her less amusing!