Sophie Gee

the reversal moment where the downtrodden hero gets saved as the book escalates toward the end.

Now, that's not exactly what happens in this book, although it's not without hope.

But he does give Billy this amazing moment in the middle of the book where he finds himself visible and applauded and the kind of the hero of the hour.

And then the story pivots into the demonstration of fiction.

And Mr. Farthing asks all the boys to write something called a tall story.

He explains what a tall story is.

It's a work of fiction.

And Billy's tall story is,

It's completely heartbreaking.

Part of what's heartbreaking about it is the spelling, which obviously we can't reproduce by reading it aloud.

So you just have to take our word for it.

Completely, and grammatical mistakes.

One day I woke up and my mother said to me, here, Billy, there's your breakfast in bed for you.

There was bacon and egg and bread and butter and a big pot of tea.

When I had my breakfast, the sun was shining outside and I got dressed and went downstairs.

We lived in a big house.

This is all one sentence.

A big house up Mooridge and we had carpets, so had carpets, on the stairs and in the hall and central eating.

So he drops his H's in writing.

You know, so it's very moving that Billy's deepest aspiration is to live in a house that has central heating and that his mother makes him breakfast.