Kit has just moved to Stoneygate with his family, to live with his ageing grandfather who is gradually succumbing to Alzheimer's Disease. Stoneygate is an insular place, scarred by its mining history - by the danger and death it has brought them. Where the coal mine used to be there is now a wilderness.

In Stoneygate there was a wilderness, an empty space where the coal pit had once been. There, Kit met Askew, with his wild dog Jax. Askew, who ran the game called Death ... A superb book, winner of the Smarties Prize and the Michael L Printz Award.

David Almond kam über Umwege zum Schreiben. Er arbeitete als Briefträger, Lektor und Lehrer, bevor er sich 1993 ganz dem Schreiben zuwandte. 2010 wird ihm der Hans Christian Andersen Preis verliehen.