Allen & Unwin A Message to the Sea book English Paperback 224 pages

There's no telling who might write back. A charming and beautifully written story about a young boy who puts a message in a bottle which changes his entire life.

It's been a year since Tom Pellow's dad was lost at sea. He was a sailor and Tom also finds himself drawn to the vast ocean; it holds so many possibilities, dangers and secrets. After hearing a song on the radio, Tom decides to write a message in a bottle, and throw it out into the sea. To 'cast his bread upon the waters'. He doesn't really expect to hear back, but Tom keeps writing anyway, sending messages out on the tide and searching the waves for a reply. One day he finds one. It's a letter that seems to be from a ghost, deep down in Davy Jones's Locker - and the writer has a shocking answer to Tom's question.But if Tom's dad didn't perish at sea, where is he?A charming and beautifully written story about grief, hope and miracles.

Alex Shearer was born in Wick, in the far North of Scotland. He has written several TV series, stage plays, radio plays and comedy scripts. Moving into writing for children, his novels BOOTLEG and THE GREATEST STORE IN THE WORLD were adapted for television by the BBC, and his 2003 novel THE SPEED OF THE DARK was shortlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. He has previously published THE CLOUD HUNTERS, SKY RUN and THE MINISTRY OF GHOSTS with Hot Key Books. Alex lives in Somerset and is married with two grown-up children.