Home Boys

'Alex Wheatle writes from a place of honesty and passion with the full knowledge and understanding that change can only happen through words and actions' - Steve McQueen

Four schoolchildren decide to run away from the the horrors of their everyday lives in a children's home. Seeking asylum in the woods, they enjoy the exhilaration of freedom and the first flush of adolescence. Yet the forest slowly asserts its own power and what happens out in the wild will affect the four boys' lives forever.

With his compelling narrative directness, rhythmic prose, and trademark humour, Alex Wheatle shows himself to be an author of real calibre, exposing the social stigma associated with children's homes, and the horrifying psychological consequences of their impact on children at the most sensitive stage.

Never losing pace or failing to engage the reader at every moment, Home Boys is an unflinchingly honest depiction of disrupted childhoods.

Alex Wheatle MBE was born in South London in 1963 and is an accomplished and award-winning author of more than a dozen books, including children's and young adult novels. The story of his teenage years was the basis of Steve McQueen's "Alex Wheatle" in the Small Axe series (December 2020), and he has written and performed a play about his life titled Uprising. His novels for adults include the Windrush classic Island Songs, as well as Brixton Rock, Brenton Brown, East of Acre Lane, and Home Boys. His books have been adapted for theatre, radio and film.