Conville & Walsh

Conville & Walsh are delighted to announce that Paula Rawsthorne’s first novel, The Truth About Celia Frost, has been shortlisted for the Leeds Book Awards 2012.

The book is making waves in the area, having also been nominated for the Sefton Super Reads shortlist.

Celia is fed up with being the ‘freak’ at school. All her life she’s had to be treated differently: school after school has given assemblies explaining that the slightest cut or graze could cause her to bleed to death. So when she’s cut in a fight, and rushed to hospital, bleeding, she fears the worst. But Celia’s life changes forever that day – when she heals normally. Has her mother been lying to her since birth? Or is her mother protecting her from a kind of chilling horror that Celia can’t even begin to imagine?

Convinced that her mother is mad, she seeks freedom and finds friendship but shocking secrets are uncovered and danger closes in as The Truth About Celia Frost begins to unravel with devastating effects. This gripping, rollercoaster ride of a thriller manages also to be a touching rite of passage about a girl’s relationship with her mother and confronts thought-provoking issues about medical research and the good of the individual versus society. Furthermore, the story works as an insightful mirror for every girl’s adolescence; can you fully grow away from your mother when she knows you better than you know yourself?

It’s a book that Susan Elkin in the Independent found ‘riveting… the story races off into a world of unscrupulous doctors, a ruthless private detective who finally finds his inner decency, and Celia’s beautifully evoked, troubled but determined mother.’ It will be judged alongside other shortlisted book by pupils at participating secondary schools in Leeds and Sefton and the pupils will vote for their winner. The Award ceremonies will be held later in 2012.