Amanda Coe

Spoiled but emotionally neglected Gemma, who seems to have everything, and semi-feral Pauline, who has less than nothing, are two very different ten-year-old girls growing up in a tough Yorkshire town in the 1970s. Pauline longs for the simple luxuries of Gemma's life: her neatly folded socks and her clean hair. Gemma, upset by her parent's breakup, loses herself in fantasies of meeting the child television star Lallie. When Lallie shoots a movie...

The story centers around a young group of siblings pretty much neglected by their alcoholic father, surviving by their wits, and humor, on a rough Manchester council estate. Whilst they won't admit it, they need help and find it in Steve, a young middle class lad who falls for Fiona, the oldest sibling, and increasingly finds himself drawn to this unconventional and unique family. Chaos ensues with more tales of how one extraordinary family goes about...