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Synopsis

Ivy by Julie Hearn

The only beautiful thing in Ivy's drab life is her glorious red hair. At a young age, her locks made her the target of Carroty Kate, a 'skinner'. She recruited Ivy to help her coax wealthy children away from their nannies so that she could strip them of their clothes. It is years before Ivy escapes and finds her way back to her in-laws.

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Reviews

[Reviews for The Merrybegot]: 'A lively and brilliant work. This book leapt out at me. It startled me and then held my attention. Gaye Hicyilmaz, TES combines magic realism and historical fact in a formula that Julia Hearn has made her own, proving that her brilliant novel Follow Me Down was not just beginner's luck Sunday Telegraph a fantastic read School Librarian Hearn writes with great Brio and style. Her characters ... spring from the page. We can hear their voices, and the details of their lives are economically but vividly depicted.
Guardian
Ingeniously structured, with compelling plot twists, it is engrossing and immediate; Hearn has the skill of a conjuror and her novel casts a spell
Sunday Times
A gripping, atmospheric novel, which demands reading at one sitting. Five Stars.
Books for Keeps
Told in clear, vivid prose and peopled with sympathetic characters, it is a huge leap forward for a talented new storyteller
The Times

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About The Author

Julie Hearn was our Guest Editor in August 2011. Click here to see the books she selected.

Julie Hearn used to be a tabloid journalist but much prefers writing novels because she is less likely to be sued nowadays for making things up. After her daughter, Tilly, was born she began a degree in Education but switched to English after suffering a panic attack while attempting to teach maths to year six. She went on to complete a Masters Degree in Women's Studies at Oxford University, where an idea for her thesis became the inspiration for her first novel, Follow Me Down.  Julie lives in Oxfordshire where she writes full time (most mornings anyway) in a pink and green office in her garden.

Julie Hearn Q&A:

Have you always wanted to be a writer?

Ever since I can remember. When I was five I wrote stories about elves and rabbits on scraps of paper and sewed them up the middle to make little books. I wrote diaries too - pages and pages every day - and if nothing exciting had happened I made stuff up. My teenage diaries are shocking, but a pack of lies from start to finish.

I still wanted to write when I left school so I became a journalist. And that was great fun, for a long time, although when it came to making things up, there was only so far I could go!

Why did you decide to write children's books rather than books for adults?

I suppose I'd had enough of writing for adults - first as a journalist, then as a student of English and women's studies. I wanted to give my imagination free rein in a way that didn't have to be clever, or cynical, or have a great wodge of footnotes at the bottom of every page to explain things!

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