Page 99 - NEW TITLES JANUARY - MARCH 2024

ADVANCE INFORMATION

Field Lane

John Sodeau

KEY SELLING POINTS

A novel bringing together the plots and dramatis personae of the classic books, Oliver Twist and the
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. It tells the unwritten stories of both real people and newly imagined
characters who might have influenced their lives and futures.
The first time that characters from two famous classics, by Dickens and Twain, have been brought together
for further adventures.
A historical thriller which also touches on slavery, famine, drugs, racial prejudice and snobbery

Charley Bates was an outsider. Always the third wheel to the Artful Dodger and Oliver Twist’s double-act in
Fagin’s gang. Then he became the redeemed thief who managed to turn himself into ‘the merriest young
grazier in the whole of Northamptonshire.’ But would he remain on the straight and narrow or go back to his
criminal ways? What he needed was a mission to keep himself honest. And then he got one: a chance to bring
justice to bear on a villain from his past, Monks, the stepbrother of Oliver Twist. Getting even would mean a trip
from the Thames to the Mississippi and help from old friends to right the wrongs done by the ‘creature’ as
Charley thought of him.
Field Lane reflects a 19th century world filled with social injustice, slavery, drug abuse and Royal privilege. Its
fictional characters become intertwined with real-life historical figures such as the Duchess of Kent (the mother
of Queen Victoria), the scientist Michael Faraday and Sam Clemens, the boy who would become Mark Twain.
At the climax justice is indeed served in line with Charles Dickens’ wish. But by whom?

John Sodeau is currently Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at University College Cork, Ireland. Previously he
taught and researched at Universities in UK, USA and Japan. Over a period of 40 years, he has written many
hundreds of thousands of words, but this novel is his first work combining his interests in literature, history,
social justice and science. He is sometimes described as an air pollution and climate change campaigner.

Publication Date: 28th February 2024 £9.99 ISBN: 9781805142355
Thema subject category: FV – Historical fiction
paperback 198 x 129 mm 216 pp Portrait Author location: Cork

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