Heartland

When Neil Cross was five years old, his mother left him. No note, no phone call, just an empty house and a brow-beaten father. Two years later, she came back for her son. She was not alone.

Neil's new step-father was a South-African white supremacist. He was a serial adulterer, a thief, a con man, a racist and a liar. And in many ways, he was the perfect father. In their backstreet Edinburgh slum, Derek Cross introduced Neil to Tom Sawyer, Kidnapped, and The Three Musketeers, and whilst his step-son battled violent anti-English racism everyday in the playground, Derek discovered a new way to isolate his family; he became a Mormon Bishop in the Church of the Latter Day Saints.

This is a story about being raised a racist and an outsider - and overcoming it; about family and step-family; about class and religion; and about how resentment breeds violence. And it's about what, in the end, the love of books can do for you.

Auteur

Neil Cross is the creator and sole writer of the critically acclaimed BBC America crime series Luther, and the film Luther: The Fallen Sun, available on Netflix. In 2011, Cross was awarded the Edgar Award for Best Teleplay for episode one of Luther. He is the author of the thriller Burial and lives with his family in Wellington, New Zealand. Visit him online at Neil-Cross.com.