This ebook is based on the original paperback but has been put back to the 1960s and amended slightly.

The year is 1960. The Hill Family: Adam, Rebecca and son Charlie are all battling their own private demons; surviving - existing - in the wild and wonderful North-East of England.

Rebecca, an alcoholic with morals of an alley-cat, still festers over a long-ago broken romance with the local gigolo, Jimmy Shannon, and carries a dreadful secret about her violent, miscreant teenage son, Charlie.

Adam, a typical collier; hard-working, hard drinking and brutal, especially towards his wayward, criminal son, spends most of his married life trying to suppress the self-destruct button because of the antics of his emotional, erratic spouse.

Charlie Hill, out of control in his final year at school is a bully, a thief and an arsonist who works on a regular basis for local gangster Elvis Priestley. Upon leaving school he manages to secure employment at the local colliery even though the industry is dead on its feet.

Two topsy-turvy years in the turbulent lives of the family, culminating in the inevitable, unreliable confessional that threatens to destroy all three lives.