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Chapters (75)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise
  3. About the Author
  4. Title Page
  5. Intoroduction
  6. ONE
  7. TWO
  8. THREE
  9. FOUR
  10. FIVE
  11. SIX
  12. SEVEN
  13. EITHT
  14. NINE
  15. TEN
  16. ELEVEN
  17. TWELVE
  18. THIRTEEN
  19. FOURTEEN
  20. FIFTEEN
  21. SIXTEEN
  22. SEVENTEEN
  23. EIGHTEEN
  24. NINETEEN
  25. TWENTY
  26. TWENTY-ONE
  27. TWENTY-TWO
  28. TWENTY-THREE
  29. TWENTY-FOUR
  30. TWENTY-FIVE
  31. TWENTY-SIX
  32. TWENTY-SEVEN
  33. TWENTY-EIGHT
  34. TWENTY-NINE
  35. THIRTY
  36. THIRTY-ONE
  37. THIRTY-TWO
  38. THIRTY-THREE
  39. THIRTY-FOUR
  40. THIRTY-FIVE
  41. THIRTY-SIX
  42. THIRTY-SEVEN
  43. THIRTY-EIGHT
  44. THIRTY-NINE
  45. FORTY
  46. FORTY-ONE
  47. FORTY-TWO
  48. FORTY-THREE
  49. FORTY-FOUR
  50. FORTY-FIVE
  51. FORTY-SIX
  52. FORTY-SEVEN
  53. FORTY-EIGHT
  54. FORTY-NINE
  55. FIFTY
  56. FIFTY-ONE
  57. FIFTY-TWO
  58. FIFTY-THREE
  59. FIFTY-FOUR
  60. FIFTY-FIVE
  61. FIFTY-SIX
  62. FIFTY-SEVEN
  63. FIFTY-EIGHT
  64. FIFTY-NINE
  65. SIXTY
  66. SIXTY-ONE
  67. SIXTY-TWO
  68. SIXTY-THREE
  69. SIXTY-FOUR
  70. SIXTY-FIVE
  71. SIXTY-SIX
  72. SIXTY-SEVEN
  73. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  74. CLIMATE EMERGENCY
  75. Copyright

I’m not sure how to answer. How much do they know about my recent confession? I don’t have to wait long to find out.

‘We’d like to add our apologies to your mother’s,’ says Nanna, shuffling in her seat, looking doubly uncomfortable for the fact that she’s normally so relaxed. She finally settles in a very upright pose, her fingers bridged on the table, as if she’s playing the piano. ‘We thought – we all did – that you were coping better than you were. Your mum told us about what’s been going on. How’s your friend’s leg, by the way? Jason, is it?’

‘Jamie. He’s OK.’ But I haven’t spoken to Jamie since Vince bundled me into the back of Carl’s car. Mum’s kept me off for the last few days of school because of my hand.

Grandad’s voice is stern, level. ‘Good. And this silliness with these websites. These ideas about the world. That’s all stopped too has it?’

‘Yes.’ I don’t have to lie about that.

Nanna speaks again. ‘We read in the news last week about someone taking a hammer to a charity shop window not far from you. Can you imagine? A hammer! In all my years I’ve never seen madness like we’re seeing at the moment. Never expected that it could get so close to home. The big towns and cities, yes, maybe. But not here, or where you live.’

‘Did they catch the person who did it?’ My voice almost fails in my throat as I speak.

‘Of course not. They never do.’

I think about my own interview at the police station last month, imagine the tape going into a box in a room lined with boxes, never to be seen or heard again.

Nanna continues, ‘Only last week I was on the bus, going to the shops, and someone started troubling this Asian lady just in front of me. I always see her on there. She seems lovely. Anyway, after he got off, someone went to check if she was OK, and she said it happens all the time. I’d have liked to have given that man a piece of my mind, only…’

Grandad cuts in, ‘But the fact is that it’s happening all over, Josh. There are dangerous people out there, and they’ll tell you anything you want to hear to help them with their toxic, violent aims. They call themselves British; proud patriots. There’s nothing British about what they’re doing.’