Book description
Beekeeper and odd job man Mart May is befriended by a curious and
lonely boy whilst tending to errands around the prestigious home of
Lady Burnett. As the two begin to bond, the boy, James, discovers the
secret of Mart's illiteracy and - startled and concerned - takes on
the task of teaching his reluctant subject to read and write. Yet when
the summer holidays end, the isolated world in which the characters
have grown close is broken by a return to the normality of routine and
convention.
Part of the Storycuts series, this short story was previously
published in the collection The Boy Who Taught the Beekeeper to Read.
Susan Hill's novels and short stories have won the Whitbread,
Somerset Maugham and John Llewellyn Rhys awards and been shortlisted
for the Booker Prize. She is the author of over fifty books, including
the five previous Serrailler crime novels, The Various Haunts of
Men, The Pure in Heart, The Risk of Darkness, The
Vows of Silence and The Shadows in the Street. The play
adapted from her famous ghost story, The Woman in Black, has been
running in the West End since 1989; it has also recently been made
into a film starring Daniel Radcliffe.
Susan Hill was born in Scarborough and educated at King's College
London. She is married to the Shakespeare scholar, Stanley Wells, and
they have two daughters. She lives in Gloucestershire, where she runs
her own small publishing firm, Long Barn Books.
