Great Expectations

Carnegie Medal-winning author Tanya Landman returns with a brilliantly realised and truly accessible retelling of the book described as Dickens’ “most perfect” novel.

My story is a long one with many strange events and dark turns. But time is short. I will be brief. In this slim volume I concentrate on five people. A dangerous criminal. An honest blacksmith. An abandoned bride. A girl who glittered like a distant star. And myself. Philip Pirrip, known as Pip, whose life was twisted and bent out of shape by all of them.

Orphaned as baby, Pip is raised by his sister to live the simple life of a blacksmith’s boy. But a chance encounter in a graveyard and a visit to a ruined mansion set him on a different path. When a secret benefactor pays for him to become a gentleman, Pip’s life takes a greatly unexpected turn …

Reviews

“This nippy, easy-to-digest condensing and rewriting of the novel … doesn’t put a word wrong … the story flies along with the narrative trot of a finely crafted literary telenovela. Landman has oiled the wheels of Mr Rochester’s carriage … makes the essence of a great book accessible to all.” – Jane Eyre: A Retelling, The Times Children’s Book of the Week

"Skilfully stripped back to the core essentials … the perfect introduction" – The Scotsman on Barrington Stoke Classic Retellings

About the author

Tanya Landman is renowned for her thought-provoking, prize-winning novels including the beautifully “deft and dark”, Carnegie Medal-winning Buffalo Soldier. In 2019 she won the Scottish Teenage Book Prize for her critically acclaimed novella One Shot. Tanya says that she loves how writing allows her to daydream – something she was always in trouble for at school! She lives in Devon with her sons, a Siamese cat and two Labradors.