A while back, I was watching the musical ‘Oliver’ with my (grown-up) kid when I suddenly thought how much fun it would be to write a spin-off of ‘Oliver Twist’. It took a couple of weeks of noodling around with ideas, till I came up with ‘Fagin’s Girl’, which is set just before the period of Dicken’s epic tale.
My characters are Ettie and her brother Joe. Soon after Joe disappears, ten-year-old Ettie finds herself alone, living on the streets of London. Her only chance of safety is to try and join a pickpocketing gang run by criminal Fagin… but to do that she’ll have to disguise herself as a boy.
I LOVE the cover of the book, with it’s rooftop scene of Victorian London, with the famous St Paul’s Cathedral in the background.
And illustrator Anneli Bray has done a brilliant job of the illustrations inside too. Here’s one of Ettie finding a way to look more like a boy and earn some much-needed money too – by selling her long hair!
Hope you enjoy it if you get the chance to read it. And hope you enjoy the surprise, bonus chapter at the end…
Karen McCombie :c)
