There is no authorial barrier between Donny’s voice and the reader; his use of Multicultural London English (as helpfully glossed at the back of the book! The first part shows poverty stricken Donny’s early life with his drug abusing mother and the event that leads to him ending up in the foster care system. This book is real and unafraid to confront the various issues faced by so many, but still tells a tale of hope. Heartbreaking but ultimately hopeful, the exhilarating plot and memorable characters combine to create a true page-turner.

But it is Donny's work experience with canals and helping out Andrew the gatekeeper of the lock gates who truly changes the lost boy into being the strong and determined young man he becomes. Miles revisits the much-loved protagonist of 29 Miles two years after his canal boat adventure as a fifteen-year-old. When his mum is jailed for drugs offences, Donny is fostered outside London to the Hertfordshire countryside. She has taught in secondary schools for twenty-three years, including fifteen in an Islington comprehensive. I really rooted for him to do well as he has had a hard childhood and I think he deserved some happiness in his life.This really hurt to read, if I'm honest after seeing the somewhat naive little boy at the beginning of the book become so jaded. Donny is an inspirational hero who seeks justice in the face of overwhelming obstacles – it’s impossible not to fall in love with him!

I shouldn't be on here because, well, I wrote the book, but it still makes me cry and laugh, even after 1000s of revisions and edits and months of rewriting on its journey to publication. It tells the story of Donny, who has grown up in a violent, cruel and brutal world of drugs and crime. Donny has enough experience to know that something isn’t right and he will do whatever he has to to keep Zoe safe.We lived right by it in Ware, and I just loved the idea of walking down the towpath and seeing Donny, Zoe and Ziggy the dog cruise by on Zuma Jay! I’m a freelance teacher and adviser for Minority Matters, an educational charity supporting disadvantaged young people in Islington. When Donny is taken from London finally and to Hertfordshire, he feels out of his depth and is taunted by his classmates who judge him by both how he looks and where he comes from. Navigating the 29 locks of the Union Canal system, Donny’s mission to the city is so he can reunite with his mother who is due to be released from prison, while Zoe’s mission is to meet with a modelling agency and pose for strip photos.

Fifteen-year-old Donald Leroy Samson is the son of an absentee St Lucian father and a drug-addicted English mother. My debut novel, 29 Locks, was shortlisted for both the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize and Mslexia Children’s Novel Competition and was longlisted in the Berkshire Book Award 2022. Growing up in Hackney with his loving but troubled single mum, fifteen-year-old Donny’s life has been shaped by poverty, crime and casual violence, including grooming by a local gang. When Donny’s posh new friend Zoe is offered a dubious modelling audition in London, the pair decide to ‘borrow’ a canal barge and navigate the 29 locks down to Kings Cross.

In what is becoming a bit of a theme at the moment, I must apologise for the delay in posting this review! But things go wrong around him and he's taken back into the system due to events that are out of his control. The ending was absolutely unrealistic, and any teen of color in such a situation would get railroaded by the system, not released with a wink and an 'attaboy'. Older, wiser and more confident, life is going well for the former gang member who’d escaped a brutal life of criminal exploitation. Her first novel, 29 LOCKS , was shortlisted for the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize ; Mslexia Children’s Novel Competition; Financial Times Best Books of 2021 and longlisted for the 2022 Branford Boase Award.