Phil was born in Hull in 1974, and he studied English and Drama at Hull University.
He worked for a year as a carer in a children’s home, then after training as a drama therapist, he worked in a therapeutic community in London, which cared for multiply abused adolescents. Then, changing tack completely, he chose a marginally more sedate life as a children’s bookseller.
It was here that he developed an obsession for kid’s literature, in particular, young adult fiction.
After three years at Ottakar’s, he became a sales rep, and then a key account manager for Transworld/Random House, and is now sales director at Simon and Schuster Children’s Books.
Phil lives in South East London with his wife and two young children, and apparently has an annoying habit of writing whilst watching Sky Sports. According to his wife, this is not multi-tasking, although he begs to differ.
Aside from his family, books and sport, he loves curry, pink wine and Elvis, but not always in that order, or on the same day.
What do you do when your new parents decide they don’t want you?
Billy Finn is a care home ‘lifer’. Taken from his mother at age six, due to her poor choice of boyfriend, he lives with his twin younger brother and sister and seven other children in a local authority home. In the care home he has to deal with the grim realities of life in care, the regimented timetables that shape every day, the constant tide of new or casual carers, the physical restraints that accompany his emotional outbursts. To make it worse, he discovers that his mother, seemingly on her way to recovery, is keen to take the twins back home, but not him.
Without them, he would have nothing. His last chance of family would be gone. To break the cycle of abuse for the first time and take his brother and sister out of the house, Billy must change his sense of self, and in some small way, his outlook on family and the future.
An emotional voyage of discovery, coupled with the frustration of being a teenager and the revelation that maybe some people are worth believing in.
| Territory | Publisher/Agent |
|---|---|
| World | Darley Anderson Agency |
| UK & Commonwealth | Puffin |
| German | Carlsen |