Many moons ago, I stumbled upon an indie film on Sky Movies starring Andrew Garfield. The film was Boy A and I had no idea as to the fact it was adapted from an original novel by Jonathan Trigell, nor that it was loosely based on one of the most shocking headlines in British history. I enjoyed the film and its powerful performances by an understated cast yet never really had the chance to talk about it with anyone, as it seemed to be one of those titled that nobody had heard of.

Last week, I popped into an Oxfam in Bradford City Centre and found the Boy A novel on the shelves. Despite the fact I’d already seen the film (I prefer to read books first and then watch their filmic counterparts), I decided to give it a read and found that I ended up reading the whole thing…