With characters as diverse Christ, the red-breasted robin and kings Arthur and Alfred, BLACK DIRT is the story of Frank - and the stories he tells George and Margaret, his adult children. Frank, lying ill in bed, finds his dying dreams haunted by figures from his past: his parents, and his older sister Iris, whose existence - and terrible crime - he has spent long years struggling to forget. Revealing the dark and sinister shadows that can shape a child's imagination, Nell Leyshon explores the boundaries of fantasy, where the familiar happy-ever-after ending of folk-tales, fairy-stories and fable is far from certain. Written in a lyrical yet spare style, BLACK DIRT explores the guilty silences that bind family members together - and sometimes keep them apart.