Counter Clockwise

What if your mother were hit by a bus?

For twelve-year-old Nathan Cobbe, grief is an everyday ache inside Apartment 134 of the condemned Tarside Heights estate. And what if your father disappeared one day through a hole in the bathroom wall?

When time itself begins to fracture across London, saving the people he loves means chasing impossible answers through the city. Could an eccentric seven-foot Beefeater wandering South London hold the secret to mending the past? Is there a way to change the course of your life's history?

What if time moved

A single second separates memory from tragedy on the rain-swept Embankment. Would a reckless leap through shattered plaster let a boy rewrite that fatal afternoon?

In this dazzling debut novel, Jason Cockcroft has crafted a mind-bending adventure with a startlingly original narrative structure.
Time Travel Adventure: A red double-decker bus on route 230 hurtles across Blackfriars Bridge, carrying passengers into fractured hours where clocks stop dead at two-thirty.Father and Son: Living on the thirteenth floor of a condemned Peckham tower block, Nathan watches his stressed father battle ulcers and lost hope, desperate to hold their world together.Unlikely Hero: Dodging evening physics review classes and dangerous London traffic, twelve-year-old Nathan must find the courage to confront the grief unravelling his reality.Magical Realism: A playful Yeoman Warder unties sleeping teachers' shoelaces, while a ferocious courtyard pug named Marbles can only be soothed with pineapple chewing gum.