Black Swan Green

January, 1982. Thirteen-year-old jason taylor - covert stammerer and reluctant poet - anticipates a stultifying year in his backwater english village. But he hasn't reckoned with bullies, simmering family discord, the falklands war, a threatened gypsy invasion and those mysterious entities known as girls. Charting thirteen months in the black hole between childhood and adolescence, this is a captivating novel, wry, painful and vibrant with the stuff of life.