The Black Book of Secrets
The Black Book Of Secrets is a book written by F.E Higgins, who also wrote The Bone Magician and The Eyeball Collector.
Plot
A young boy, named Ludlow Fitch, is sick of pickpocketing for his poor parents' want of gin. At the start of the book, he is hit unconscious by them and is sent to Barton Gumbroot, the dentist who plans to buy Ludlow's teeth. Ludlow fights them off and runs away from them and their addiction to alcohol. He hitches a ride in a carriage that leads him into a place called Pagus Parvus. There, he meets a mysterious man called Joe Zabbidou, who is also a newcomer in Pagus Parvus. Shortly after they meet, Joe offers Ludlow a job as his apprentice in his work as a 'secret pawnbroker'. Ludlow's job invloves writing secrets AbOUT the other people's lives in Pagus Parvus inside a black book but things take a horrible turn when a man called Jeremiah Rachett, who has everyone in the village blackmailed or threatened, finds out about the book and plans to take the book and use it to his advantage.
Characters
- Ludlow Fitch
A young boy who escapes the City away from his parents after they hit him unconscious and offer his teeth to a dentist called Barton Gumbroot. He has a confession that haunts him every night since he had left the City and near the end of the book, he tells his confession to Joe, who writes it in the book of secrets. In Pagus Parvus, he befriends a young maid called Polly, who works for Jeremiah.
- Joe Zabbidou
An unusual man who is a 'secret pawnbroker', swapping secrets for money to give to the villagers of Pagus Parvus, who are in desperate need of it. On the night of his arrival in Pagus Parvus, he offers Ludlow a job as his apprentice. He has a wooden peg leg which he keeps in his house as well as a pet frog named Saluki, who needs trust in order to be held. He has a few secrets himself and his shadowy ways makes trouble for him and Ludlow later in the book.
Inspiration
F.E Higgins decided to write the book after finding a real peg leg just like Joe's. In it was contained a large amount of documents. She had found that it was, in fact, written by Ludlow himself. She also found though that a majority of it was unreadable so, with the pages that she could read, she decided to fill the gaps with her interpretation of what could've happened in between. In the book, it is the chapters in the third person that Higgins had written.
Recognition
The Black Book Of Secrets was shortlisted for the Bolton Children's Book Award in 2008.