The Vanishing of Margaret Small
'An evocative, endearing, entertaining and thoroughly delicious character portrait and a terrific first novel' - Donal MacIntyre, TV presenter
'A tender, thought-provoking and totally gripping novel from a wonderful storyteller...deserves to be a huge hit!' - Matt Cain, author of The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle
Meet Margaret Small: 75, plain spoken, Whitstable native and a Cilla Black super fan. Shortly after the death of her idol, Margaret begins receiving sums of money in the post, signed simply 'C'.
She is convinced it must be Cilla, but how can it be? To solve the mystery of her benefactor Margaret must go back in her memories almost 70 years, to the time when she was 'vanished' to a long-stay institution for children with learning disabilities.
An absorbing and page-turning mystery with a dual timeline, The Vanishing of Margaret Small takes readers into a fascinating past, and introduces an unforgettable literary heroine.
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About the Author
Much of the inspiration for Neil Alexander's debut novel, 'The Vanishing of Margaret Small', came directly from the voices of people with a learning disability, and the incredibly moving first person accounts of living in long stay institutions, which he heard while working for the UK charity Mencap. Neil, who has a Masters degree in English Literature from the University of Kent at Canterbury, began his career working in health journalism. Originally from Northern Ireland, he now lives in the seaside town of Whitstable in Kent. He currently teaches English part-time and is working on his second novel. You can follow Neil on Twitter @neilalexander_ and Instagram @neilalexanderwriter