Underdogs

Beautiful, heartbreaking, uplifting, funny . . . At times my own heart was racing as if with the dogs . . . a story of love, of loss, of hope; of life and how to live it even when the chips are downJENNY KNIGHT, author of Wild Moon Rising

A spirited and heartwarming portrait of a fast-dying community, and the dogs are wonderfulFT

These hands, he said, and spread the paira them out wide so we could see the callouses and the little lines of coal dust underneath his skin;these hands were made to pick out summat precious from somewhere that doesnt wanna give it up.

County Durham, 1998. The pits have closed and jobs are hard to come by, but charismatic ex-miner Bertie has a plan. He runs an underground gambling ring at the local dog track which offers down-on-their-luck blokes a way to turn their life around.

Regs ten-year-old son George knows his dad hasnt been the same since Mam died, and the letters with scary red type that keep coming through the door cant be good news. So when Bertie offers Reg and George the chance to race Goldie, a beautiful fawn greyhound, they jump at the opportunity.

To succeed theyll need to learn how to navigate the larger-than-life world of the flapping track, all while dark secrets from Berties past threaten to unravel the operation. Do Reg and George have what it takes to pull off the gamble of a lifetime?

A love letter to a disappearing communityService95

Told with a full-blooded voice that is as quick and alive as the hounds that fill its pages, Underdogs captures a forgotten way of life in a forgotten part of England with rare honesty and wit SCOTT PRESTON, author of The Borrowed Hills