AwardsThe Man Booker Prize (nominee)Whitbread PrizeA small, pretty seaside town is harshly exposed by a young boy's curiosity. His prurient interest, oddly motivated, leaves few people unaffected - and the consequence cannot be ignored. This is a remarkable account of the evil that can lurk in the most harmless setting and for readers now it has the startling ability to bring back to life the now very strange seeming English world of thirty years ago.