The Fire-Eaters has been getting rave reviews in Britain and Australia, and it thoroughly deserves them.   It is a tight, emotional study of a boy and a whole world at a major turning point in their lives, from one of the best writers for young people around. 

And that detail – writer for young people - is my one concern with the book. 

The setting is the north of England in the desperate and crazy time of the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when it seemed that World War III was about to begin.  It is told by Bobby Burns, who is about to leave the comfort of his local primary school for the unknown of an academic high school. 

It seems to him that everything is at a turning point.  Old friendships are strained and new ones beckon, his father’s health is failing with repeated hospital tests, the traditional ways of his neighbourhood face the influx of middle class city dwellers, and the whole world waits for war. 

And really, nothing much actually happens in the story as everyone waits for things to work themselves out.  David Almond, who toured Australia earlier this year, has built a rich and detailed portrait of Bobby, and his questions.  Much is based around his encounters with McNulty, a sad and troubled street performer, who eats fire and impales himself with skewers, not so much to entertain the crowds but to confront them. 

It is gripping and powerful writing and certainly justifies the praise it has received.  But is it young people’s writing? 

Authors get labelled and categorized.  After the success of his award-winning Skellig, David Almond is now sold as a children’s writer.  But this is not a children’s book – not because of anything “improper”, but because it is the story of an adult looking back. 

While it should be appreciated by teen readers who are prepared to think about it, the time and place and emotions of its setting assume a prior knowledge that very few teenagers would have.  But The Fire-Eaters can speak wonderfully to anyone who has lived through world crises like Cuba.  It reads as a memoir and draws out personal memories that enrich the fiction of Bobby’s life. 

The Fire-Eaters is a brilliant book, but I think the publishers may have missed its market.  Just because a book is about a child does not mean it must only be read by children.

Other books by this author:
Skellig (Hodder, 1998)

Review by David Beagley

© 2003 David Beagley