The writing about their time together is touching, realistic, sweet and full of fun British slang that was fun to try and decipher. Over the next seven weeks they fall in love. He borrows a friends little boat and it capsizes and he is saved by 18 year old Barry who is bi, grieving for his father and managing his family's music shoppe. He lives in a British tourist town and has to decide about furthering his studies or getting a job. Hal is 16, British, mostly gay and deciding what to do with the rest of his life. The way it was written -combination of confessional, social work reports and a few newspaper clippings make it innovative. This book was published in 1982 and the content of the story makes it very brave. From 2003 to 2006 he was President of the School Library Association.ģ 'innovative, brave but overwrought' stars !! They were awarded the Eleanor Farjeon Award for outstanding services to children's books in 1982. He and his wife, Nancy, founded Thimble Press and the magazine Signal to promote literature for children and young adults. His works include the 'Dance sequence' of six novels: Breaktime, Dance on My Grave, Now I Know, The Toll Bridge, Postcards from No Man's Land and This Is All: The Pillow Book of Cordelia Kenn. His first plays, including Johnny Salter (1966), The Car and The Chicken Run (1968), were published while he was a teacher in Stroud.Ĭhambers left the monastery in 1967 and a year later became a freelance writer.

He later used his experience as a monk in his novel Now I Know. After two years in the Royal Navy as part of his National Service, Chambers trained as a teacher and taught for three years at Westcliff High School in Southend on Sea before joining an Anglican monastery in Stroud, Gloucestershire in 1960. Born near Chester-le-Street, County Durham in 1934, Chambers was an only child, and a poor scholar considered 'slow' by his teachers, he did not learn to read fluently until the age of nine.

Dance on My Grave by Aidan Chambers