“When are we supposed to be meeting Mo anyway?” said Danny, checking the time.
“One o’clock at the ice rink. Krystal’s already there.”
“Then we better get our skates on,” said Danny. Will stared at him blankly. “Get it? Skates on? It was a joke.” Danny grinned.
Will shook his head. “See what I have to put up with, Mum?”
“Come on, let’s make a move.” Danny touched his lips and placed his hand on the headstone. “Merry Christmas, Liz. Love you.”
He plucked the withered flowers from the grave and went to put them in the bin, his shoulders instantly dropping the moment his back was turned. Will watched him walk away and listened to the lonely crunch of snow that followed Danny down the path.
“Don’t worry, Mum,” he said. “I’ll look after him.”
END
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the following people:
Joanna Swainson, my brilliant agent. Thank you for your hard work, your patience, and, above all, for giving me a chance. Also, thank you to Thérèse Coen, Nicole Etherington, and the rest of the team at Hardman & Swainson. I feel very lucky and immensely proud to have you in my corner.
Kara Watson, my editor at Scribner, and Katie Brown, my editor at Trapeze/Orion. This book is so much better because of you. Also, thank you to Joal Hetherington, Sarah Fortune, and Marc Simonsson.
Greg Lovell, a great friend and a great writer, thank you for everything; Richard Skinner and the Faber Academy, for giving me the confidence to take my writing seriously; Kim and Joachim Leckscheidt, for being such wonderful company; Justas Ramanauskas, for all the beers and the brainstorming; Adam and Barbara Libove, for reading my early work; and Sophia Syed, Simon Mount, Aris Macos, and Max Doyle, for all of your encouragement over the years.
Jarrod Gould-Bourn, for making sure I never ran out of Marmite during the writing of this book; Sarra Szmit, for always reading whatever I write; my nephews, Thomas and Harrison Szmit—Tom, thanks for offering to sell signed copies of my book in exchange for all of the proceeds, and Harry, thanks for reading the earlier draft of this novel, and sorry it had so much swearing in it; Bill and Stella Valentino, for making me feel like I’d succeeded long before I actually did; and Linda and Phillip Gould-Bourn, for being with me for every step of this long journey.
And finally, thank you to my wife, Vanessa Valentino, otherwise known as my Secret Weapon (although not so secret now, I guess). Writing is hard at the best of times, but it would be so much harder without you. Thank you for your tireless proofreading, for always laughing at my crappy jokes, for putting me back on that horse whenever I fell (or threw myself) off, for reminding me to shave whenever I was in the midst of one of my feral writing episodes, for sharing the burden of my countless rejections, and for always believing in me, even on those days when I no longer believed in myself.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
© VANESSA VALENTINO
JAMES GOULD-BOURN is an award-winning screenwriter and novelist from Manchester, England. He is a graduate of Faber Academy’s writing course and Bear Necessity is his first novel. He lives in Malaysia.
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2020 by James Gould-Bourn
Originally published in Great Britain in 2020 by Trapeze Books
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ISBN 978-1-9821-5288-8
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Bear Necessity Page 27