A Song for Ella Grey - Tapa dura

Infused with lyricism and with the fire and oddness of adolescence. Fresh, involving and lucid, it is a song in itself, and teens will find it fills them with poignant longing and joy. (The Daily Telegraph)

A desperately romantic and deeply lyrical re-imagining of Orpheus and Eurydice... David Almond at his best. * * * * * (Bookbag)

Passages of magic. (Financial Times)

Beautifully written... poetic and allusive. (Irish Times)

Spell-binding... impossible to resist... breathless, intoxicating prose. [Almond's] books seem to exist in their own otherworldly universe, outside all the trends in modern publishing, yet resolutely of the now. (The Glasgow Herald)

Lyrical and dreamlike, this beautifully written story conjures up the insane intensity of first love and the effect it has on those caught up in its slipstream. Authentic teenage characters and attitudes, and Almond's control of emotion is superb. (Daily Mail)

Almond's writing is superb. (Irish Daily Mail)

A ravishing, ingenious novel told in Almond's own hypnotic northern lilt. (The Scotsman)

A retelling of the myth of Orpheus... Almond's version is a revelation: his poetic prose seeps into your blood like word-venom until you can't imagine reading anything else (Children's Book of the Week) (The Times)

a strong sense of mystery...lyrical... poetic...moves in a deliberate dreamlike way. A beautiful book that works on several levels A triumph. (Marcus Sedgwick) (The Guardian)