The World According to Bazil Bratt, aged 8

By Nell Peters

Bazil is the third son of the dysfunctional Bratts. Whilst Mr Bratt is doing a long stretch in prison, his family live in poverty in the north of England. Bazil, however, has a secret weapon which will be his family's ticket out of there - he is a mini genius. Bazil doesn't realise he's using poetry as an outlet for his frustrations - but he's good at it and sometimes very funny.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nell Peters
• Release date: Jun 27, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476336237

Nell Peters

Hi! My real name is Anne, with a double-barrelled surname, so I use a much shorter pen name, courtesy my parents' Christian names. And no, my dad is not called Nell. I've always written, in one form or another - I just love it. Because I enjoy writing crime, I went back to uni to read psychology and sociology, hoping to give my plots and characterisation a bit of an edge. I may hold some sort of record for most ancient student on campus. My protagonist, Rose Huntingford (Double You and sequel Santa's Slays) takes her name from my paternal great grandmother, who was illegitimate, born in a workhouse in 1876. Nowadays, it is almost impossible to imagine how poor she and her mother (Rosa) would have been. But Rose must have been quite a lady - she pulled herself up by the bootstraps and married a rich landowner. That sort of social mobility was very rare indeed for the time. I hope she'd approve of 'my' Rose. Incidentally, her son (my grandfather, obv.) lied about his age to become a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps during World War I - so, I have two acts that are pretty hard to follow. Must try harder... I live in Norfolk (UK) with my husband, an artist, plus our two youngest boys (of four). Thanks for dropping by!

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