Out of the Ashes

“This story is not a story at all. It all happened.”

In March 2001, Becky Morley’s idyllic world changes forever. Foot-and-mouth disease breaks out on a farm, hundreds of miles away from Becky’s home in rural Devon. Soon, the nightmare is just a few fields away. As local sheep are infected and whole flocks are destroyed, the carcasses of once-loved animals are left burning on terrible pyres. Will the Morleys be next? Will their pedigree dairy herd, the sows with their piglets and Becky’s hand-reared lamb survive? Or will they all be slaughtered too? The waiting and hoping is the most agonizing experience of Becky’s life…

A powerful and moving fictional account of true events, by one of the most acclaimed children’s writers of our time.