Home Boys

'Alex Wheatle writes from a place of honesty and passion with the full knowledge and understanding that change can only happen through words and actions' - Steve McQueen

Four schoolchildren decide to run away from the the horrors of their everyday lives in a children's home. Seeking asylum in the woods, they enjoy the exhilaration of freedom and the first flush of adolescence. Yet the forest slowly asserts its own power and what happens out in the wild will affect the four boys' lives forever.

With his compelling narrative directness, rhythmic prose, and trademark humour, Alex Wheatle shows himself to be an author of real calibre, exposing the social stigma associated with children's homes, and the horrifying psychological consequences of their impact on children at the most sensitive stage.

Never losing pace or failing to engage the reader at every moment, Home Boys is an unflinchingly honest depiction of disrupted childhoods.

This is a brave, brutal story told with a shocking immediacy. Alex Wheatle has created a disturbing portrait of life in a children s home, in language which is plain, unsparing, and heart-rendingly poignant Daily Mail
Strong and meaningful Independent on Sunday
This is a book to read and nourish ... For it is a book which never gives up on its characters and, doing such, also never gives up on its readers Morning Star
Impossible to put down Buzz Magazine
Alex Wheatle writes from a place of honesty and passion with the full knowledge and understanding that change can only happen through words and actions
A gripping, horrifying and moving adventure story
I think I went through every emotion possible whilst reading this book and was bereft when I got to the end 5/4 nudge-book.com
With this groundbreaking work of fiction, Wheatle has produced what is truly the most moving book I have read this year The New Nation
A beautifully written poetic portrayal of loyalty, friendship, and boyhood adventure Big Issue
Alex Wheatle, always a gripping writer, has given us an important work about life as a kid in care in the 1970s and how brutality and abuse within the system can continue to distort and destroy lives down the years Teen Librarian

Alex Wheatle MBE was born in South London in 1963 and is an accomplished and award-winning author of more than a dozen books, including children's and young adult novels. The story of his teenage years was the basis of Steve McQueen's "Alex Wheatle" in the Small Axe series (December 2020), and he has written and performed a play about his life titled Uprising. His novels for adults include the Windrush classic Island Songs, as well as Brixton Rock, Brenton Brown, East of Acre Lane, and Home Boys. His books have been adapted for theatre, radio and film.

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