WINNER OF THE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION'S YOUNG QUILLS AWARD 2017 Jackhas left his native Ireland and is making a new life as Professor of Neurology at a university in the American South. He has certain skills, honed over his lifetime, that he mostly keeps hidden. Skills in hypnotism and mind control . . .

Thirteen-year-oldPipis plucked out of an orphanage by a farmer, hired as a farm-hand, and as carer for the farmer's wife. But Pip is black. The farmer and his wife are white. And this is 1960s America, where race defines you and overshadows everything.

As racial tensions reach boiling point with a danger closer to home and more terrifying than either thought possible, Jack and Pip's lives become inextricably linked. And Jack's hypnotic skills are called on as never before . . .

Born in 1959 to a Dutch family with Persian roots, Laurence Anholt spent his early years in Holland. He trained as a painter at Falmouth School of Art where he met his wife, the artist, Catherine Anholt. Laurence went on to take a Masters Degree in Fine Art at the Royal Academy in London. The Anholts have produced more than 200 childrens books, which have been translated into 30 languages. Their titles have won numerous awards including the Nestlé Smarties Gold Award on two occasions. Many of their books are written by Laurence and illustrated by Catherine, but Laurence has written for several other artists including Arthur Robins and Tony Ross, and in addition, he self-illustrates hisAnholts Artistsseries, an introduction to great art for young children. Random House Penguin will publish Laurences first full-length novel,The Hypnotist, in 2016. The Anholts have three grown up children; Claire (30) works for the United Nations in New York, and twins, Tom and Maddy (27) are a Berlin based artist and an actor in London. Catherine and Laurence live in an upside down eco-house, surrounded by wildflower meadows overlooking the sea in Devon. Laurences passions are family, art, travel, books, Buddhism and bees.