Author(s): Susan Hill; John Lawrence (Illustrator)

Picture Books Paper Back

Since his wife died, old Mr Hegarty has lived alone, with just his cat, Cat, and dog, Jacko, for company. The last in the street before the wharves and wharehouses, his house is one of the few that remain in the area. Most of them have been pulled down and replaced with building sites full of cranes, concrete girders and men in hard hats. Mr Hegarty passes them on his way to the old Lane, whose busy market and cafe are an enduring refuge in an ever changing world. It is in the Lane that Mr Hegarty finds himself one Christmas Eve, enjoying the cheerful bustle, before returning home in the dark. It seems like it will be just another quiet, uneventful Christmas for the lonely old widower. But then, in the middle of the night, he hears a faint crying that leads him to a disused church and a very special discovery.