From the author of Rottnest, comes a novella about an eight-year-old navigating school, friendships and neglect.

Although Saint Peter’s Knickers deals with some pretty depressing themes, it is not presented in a dark manner, primarily due to the protagonist, Piety Scroggins.

Piety is delightfully naive. She does not always understand the rules of the classroom or the playground, she struggles with relationships and has awful parents.

Set in northern England in the 1970s, older readers will recognise the school system – the lack of knowledge, understanding or compassion shown to children at this time. The words ‘special needs’, SEND, and diagnosis of learning difficulties simply did not exist at this time. One was either a clever/good child, or a ignorant/naughty child.

Corporal punishment was commonplace. Detention routine. Children were bullied mercilessly if they showed any signs of weakness or ‘difference’. Schools in England had Remedial classes for those kids who fell behind in subjects – and this was all the excuse some needed to launch a tirade of unpleasant namecalling against them. There was no attempt to integrate children who had different ways of learning. School staff rarely, if ever, displayed signs of affection, or caring – even in Primary schools – children looked to dinner ladies for sympathy quite often.

Despite what people think about the seventies – being the end of the hippie era, of ‘cool’ clothes and freedom, it has been called ‘Britain’s gloomiest period since the second world war…’ There was class war in industry, a rise in public and domestic violence, a turndown in the economy, a rise in the unemployment rate, strikes, bread queues, power cuts; the rate of decline in places like Liverpool was sharp – previously traditional manufacturing industries and the shipbuilding had employed thousands of blue collar workers ceased to exist.

Into this atmosphere of despair and despondency comes a ray of sunshine. Piety, at the opening of the tale, is eight years old. She lives with her mother and father and younger brother in a scabby terraced house and as her name suggests, she believes in goodness and is unquestionably accepting with a reverence for knowledge, nature and an unconventional reverence for paintings of saints – particualrly Saint Peter by El Greco. She has unspecified learning difficulties which no one seems capable or equipped to deal with. Most of the peripheral characters either don’t care or are actively abusive.

However, there are four adults who go against the prevailing grain of the period – and there were, at the time, rare individuals who stood out from the rest because of their compassion. Sometimes this compassion was disguised as practicality, as displayed by Mr Wright the art teacher, sometimes it revealed itself in more visible ways – but rarely.

Saint Peter’s Knickers is for any age over 12. Some of the language might be unsuitable for younger readers and it has been classed as YA. However, beta readers – who were all over 40 years of age, gave very positive reports on the story.

Although Piety is the butt of jokes, she maintains her beautiful belief that – ‘The world was an amazing place!’

Get your copy of Saint Peter’s Knickers here