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Feather Boy

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Feather boy
First edition cover
AuthorNicky Singer
IllustratorKevin Longport
Cover artistConnie Talbot
LanguageEnglish
Series1
GenreChildren's
PublisherCollins
Publication date
1 January 2002
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Pages286

Feather Boy is a novel by Brighton-based author Nicky Singer; it was first published in 2002 by HarperCollins, under the Collins imprint and reissued under the Essential Modern Classics imprint in 2010. A TV adaptation was created by the BBC in 2004.

Synopsis

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Robert Nobel is a 12-year-old shy boy who despairs of his newly divorced parents. Living in the dog-leg, he has to face many difficulties. He is the victim of classroom jokes and a victim of Niker, the classroom bully. He is hated and forced to do disgusting things. His life changes when a storyteller, Catherine, invites some of his class to Mayfield Rest Home. In there, he has to do a project with an elder called Edith Sorrel.

Edith Sorrel asks him to go to Chance House, a lonely abandoned house standing out of nowhere at st Alybuns. He goes into finding the grave of David Sorrel: a 12 year old boy who took his life on the very top level of the abandoned house ( The Chance House ). and tells this to the one he loves: Kate. However, Niker hears him and challenges him to spend a night together at the top. Having done this, Edith Sorrel gives him a new task: to create a coat of feathers just for her. He sews night and day to create it and finally, it is nearly ready. However, there is another problem: Niker. Niker destroys his coat of feathers and he has to sew it back! Finally, he gives it back to Edith and when she has it: she flies and then she dies.

In the end, he meets his father once again and they happily go fishing together.

Adaptations

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The book was adapted for television in 2004 and first shown as a series of six 30-minute episodes on the British TV channel, BBC One on 16 March.[1] It was later repeated as a single feature-length programme on 30 May 2004.

The series was written and produced by Peter Tabern and directed by Dermot Boyd, starring Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Sheila Hancock and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Tabern and Boyd shared the award for Best Drama at the British Academy Children's Awards.

In 2006 the National Theatre commissioned a musical version for young people to perform, for which Singer and Boyd wrote the script with lyrics by Don Black and music by Debbie Wiseman.

References

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  1. ^ "BBC - Press Office - Feather Boy episodes". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
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