Memoirs of a Dipper

'There's different ways to do it: I can slowly move closer step by step, or I can do it in one movement and bump into them. Easiest is in a pub then I can put my drink too close to theirs. Move my stool near theirs. Anything to cross the line.' Gary is a dipper, a burglar, a thief. He is still at junior school when his father first takes him out on the rob, and proves a fast learner: not much more than a child the first time he gets caught, he is a career criminal as soon as he is out again. But Gary is also fiercely intelligent - he often knows more about the antique furniture he is stealing than the people who own it, and is confident in his ability to trick his way out of any situation, always one step ahead. But all that changes when he falls for Mandy... Praise for The Colour of Milk 'Leyshon's spare, dialogue-centred storytelling is lean and vivid . . . a small potted tragedy, as highly concentrated as a stock cube.' The Times 'Spare and beautifully crafted . . . compelling . . . like a love letter to the power of words.'Marie Claire 'The economy of her prose heightens the power of this slender but vivid tale.' Daily Mail 'Haunting, distinctive voices . . . Mary's spare, simple words paint brilliant pictures in the reader's mind . . . Nell Leyshon's imaginative powers are considerable.' Independent 'The book is richly stylized, the groundwork carefully laid, the novelistic detail well chosen, the dialogue perfectly placed.' Guardian 'It is once in a blue moon that an author creates a voice quite as alive and as startling as Mary's. Nell Leyshon deserves to be showered with awards for The Colour of Milk.' Sunday Express