ISBN: 9780007311255    Publisher: Harper Collins Year of publishing: 2009     Format:  Paperback No of Pages: 208        Language: English

Read the story of Jim Jarvis, the boy whose plight inspired Dr Barnardo to found his famous children's homes. Now published into the Essential Modern Classics list. When his mother dies Jim Jarvis is left all alone in London. He is sent to the workhouse, but quickly escapes chosing a hard life on the streets of the city over the confines of the workhouse walls.Struggling to survive, Jim finally finds some friends only to be snatched away and made to work for the remorselessly cruel Grimy Nick, constantly guarded by his vicious dog, Snipe.Will Jim ever manage to be free?
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Berlie Doherty was born in Knotty Ash, Liverpool, the youngest of three children. She always wanted to be a writer, but when she was little there were many things she wanted to be -- a singer, ballet dancer, air hostess, librarian! Her serious writing started at university, where she trained to be a teacher. Now she lives in an isolated cottage in the country and writes in a barn overlooking the Pennines. She says of her writing: "After I finish a book I'm quite sad because I feel grieved that I have lost someone close; a great deal of myself is in my books."
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