Fifteen-year-old Donald Leroy Samson is the son of an absentee St Lucian father and a drug-addicted English mother. Donny's inner strength is one to be admired and whilst you nay want to scream at the pages, you will also cheer him on.

It has been written to feel current with a lot of British slang so it feels the way teenagers would speak. Nicola Garrad has painted a harsh and vivid picture that is an immersive, entertaining and educating (for some anyway) read. When his mum is jailed for drugs offences, Donny is fostered outside London to the Hertfordshire countryside.

I gather that this book is getting a great reception among teenagers, and I can imagine that lots of young people will see themselves in Donny. I loved the scenes of Donny and Zoe escaping down the canal – it was especially engaging for me, as I lived in Hertfordshire briefly, and I can picture that stretch of the canal so vividly.

When they start out on their journey, the future for both of them looks unpromising, like the fake audition, but as each lock is navigated and conquered, as the waters fall then rise again, their adventure takes on a new dimension.The final section of the book sees them both borrowing Andrew’s canal boat after Donny is placed on work experience with him. Donny as a character feels startlingly real: naive at times but still someone who has seen far too much too soon. We lived right by it in Ware, and I just loved the idea of walking down the towpath and seeing Donny, Zoe and Ziggy the dog cruise by on Zuma Jay! In what is becoming a bit of a theme at the moment, I must apologise for the delay in posting this review!