Most of my books have relatively vague locations. Somewhere in Yorkshire… a few miles from Newquay… between Glasgow and Edinburgh…
Chosen Child, however, is set in lovely St Ives, and the main action in Death Wish takes place in Glasgow, in the Langside area, where I stay when I visit my old home town. In the book, two neighbouring families have to deal with death-related conflicts. Recently, I went for a tramp on the streets eight-year-old Joya and family would know so well.

You can’t tell exactly where Joya’s home is by the descriptions in the book, but there are only a handful of streets it could be. Joya’s mum describes it: …a big detached house, built in the warm, red sandstone typical of the area, with lovely reception rooms downstairs and three good-sized double bedrooms upstairs. Maybe it’s the street below.

Or maybe it’s here…

Or here…

Below is where Joya looked over the bridge, on the way to Stevie’s gran’s… Along to the main road, across the bridge over the river…

Stevie’s gran’s street. …then instead of going up the hill you went around the corner, and there was the house.

Langside Station, near Joya’s home.

Some big red foxes lived in the scrubland by the railway line, and it would be dreadful if any of them captured Snowball. (Snowball is Joya’s rabbit.)

Looking down the hill.   It was a very steep hill – her mum called it ‘the killer hill’ and for the first time Joya understood why. 

The library Joya almost went into for help, the day she ran away. The library ladies were nice. But they might ask a lot of questions if she went in all alone. 

The park was a better idea. She could go for a swing.

So there you have it, a flavour of Joya’s world. If anyone wants to look on a map,  click here. Langside Station is at the bottom, and Joya lives in one of the streets nearby. The park is at the top. Have a go on Street View, start at the river and try the killer hill (Millbrae Road) for yourself!

Merken