Reissued BOOKS
The Greyhound
Everything changes for Jamie when he makes friends with an old man and his greyhound. From hope to desperation, from joy to fear, the safe but dull world he has always known takes on a new dimension where he finds himself faced with ever-changing dilemmas that he can’t run away from.
Helen Griffiths is a compelling and accomplished writer and her animal stories are remarkable for the beauty of their quiet simplicity. The Greyhound is such a book. It is a moving tale of poverty and post-war London life, a boy and a dog.
The Last Summer
Eduardo, the sheltered son of a wealthy lawyer and land-owner, has failed two subjects in his end of term exams so, instead of going to the Galician coast with his mother, he had to accompany his father on a business trip to his abandoned estate. The heat was overwhelming and the only people who lived there were the two elderly retainers, Maruja and Baltasár.
Baltasár told him stories, mostly talking about the old grey mare, Gaviota, who had belonged to his Aunt Angeles. Gaviota and Angeles had been famous in bull rings in Spain and Portugal, but that was years ago and to Eduardo Gaviota was just an old and insignificant horse.
Suddenly the dull summer turns into a nightmare. Eduardo’s father has disappeared, the estate is over-run by violent men, the servants are killed, and he finds himself alone, terrified and desperately hungry, only he and the horse having survived the attack. All Eduardo wants to do is find his way home to his mother 560 miles away.
With a desire for revenge in his heart and the old horse for company, he starts walking, battling with heat, hunger and fear all the way, but the journey of flight he sets out on opens his eyes to the poverty and oppression that sparked the war.
Dancing Horses
A homeless war orphan who owns nothing but his name; a rich young man whose life has been shattered; a beautiful horse whose potential has been crushed. Dancing Horses tells the story of how they are brought together by circumstances and find a way through conflict to triumph.
Wandering through a Spain recovering from Civil War Francisco Javier finds a friend in Pepe, a run-away like himself, and begins to share his dreams. But when Pepe is killed while trespassing on the Casares bull ranch, he is taken in and given a job looking after the gentle old mare, Gaviota. This is a new beginning for the desolate boy as he discovers an affinity with horses and comes to adore the chestnut colt, Gavilán, Gaviota’s son, who is almost unteachable and seems to hate everybody.
Determined to win him over, Francisco Javier dreams of the two of them becoming stars of rejoneo, the art of mounted bull-fighting. He risks everything to protect him and by doing so comes into conflict with the one person he has grown to admire and trust.
How the destitute boy finds a home, the unmanageable horse a master, and the man who rescues them both a future for them all is a moving and powerful story.
Helen Griffiths writes about animals and their relationship with people uncompromisingly and with clear-sighted conviction. Readers of The Last Summer will remember Gaviota.
The Dark Swallows
A Novel of the Spanish Civil War
The Dark Swallows begins in the period just before the Spanish Civil War and ends 25 years after it and is a small jewel of characterization and story development. All the people are flesh and blood. One lives through the horror of war with the young lovers, Elvira and Bernardo, in the helplessness of their situation. Man’s capacity for selfishness and cruelty is movingly depicted, first in small ways and then in the sweeping flood of war, in which cruelty and betrayal are rampant. The portrayal of the two small, feuding Spanish villages, in their remoteness and isolation, is like a sombre painting relieved only by flashes of colour which are the three days of celebration during the year. This is a powerful account of the involvement of the small and innocent in the destruction of war.
‘Immensely impressive’ - The Daily Telegraph
‘Griffith’s evocations of the Spanish background are masterly’ - The Malay Mail
‘There have been few more poignant books about a revolution and a brave people’s suffering.’ - The Miami Herald
Hari's Pigeon
Hari and his father have always been very close to one another, so when Hari's father remarries an English woman who knows nothing of the family's Indian traditions, Hari feels very left out. When he rescues a pigeon from a cat in his garden, Hari makes a home for it in his room. As he nurses the pigeon back to health he becomes increasingly attached to his pet and records his feelings in a diary. It is this diary that makes up the remarkable and extremely readable story of 'Hari's Pigeon'.