No fair.
I let all the air puff out of my body. ‘But it was just here!’
In the centre of the field – where the rides and crowds had been busiest – there was no green to see, only mud. Round the edges, the grass had been flattened, or churned up with tyre tracks. Just a few green untouched patches remained, showing what the field had been like before.
Lewis gave me a small smile. ‘The fair will be back.’
I felt something brush past my leg. A plastic popcorn wrapper. ‘Not for ages though.’
I watched the wrapper flutter and spin, over the road, under a car. I looked back at the field.
‘Come on.’ Lewis pulled lightly at my rucksack strap. ‘It won’t come back any quicker just for staring.’
We turned to walk home. The sky was changing, I noticed. Darkening.
‘My dad told me something that will cheer you up, Fi,’ Sean said.
Lewis and I looked at each other.
‘Go on,’ I said carefully.
‘My dad told me there’s a place in the East, by the sea, where all the fairs from all of Europe all join up, every October.’
We turned the corner into George Street.
‘One big fair in every direction, as far as the eye can see,’ Sean said. ‘Loads of dodgems, big wheels. Waltzers and popcorn stands everywhere you look.’
Lewis raised his eyebrow. ‘A magical place. In the East. By the sea,’ he repeated.
We shook heads at each other, smiling.
‘No, not like that! I promise! This time it’s actually true!’
Lewis leaned on the postbox. ‘What’s this magical place in the East by the sea called?’
Sean stood up straighter. ‘It’s real and it’s called Hull!’
‘Hull?’ Lewis’s voice was scornful. ‘What kind of place—’
I put my hand on his sleeve. ‘Hull.’ I remembered the fair workers talking. Will you be there in Hull?
Hull. The place in the East, by the sea.
‘Lewis.’ I clung tightly onto his sleeve. ‘We’re going to Hull.’
‘You can’t listen to Sean, Fi. He talks rubbish! He said an axeman lived there, remember?’ Lewis jerked his thumb. ‘Flipflops, in with the bananas, ring a bell?’
I looked over at the house.
There were two new cars in the drive now, Carl’s car nowhere to be seen. A tower of empty cardboard boxes sat next to the front door. There were lights on in several rooms, and two kids’ bikes were propped up under the front-room window.
Sean looked at the house. ‘The axeman thing was a joke though. Surely you can take a joke?’
I noticed the sky felt blacker still as we all crossed the road.
I shivered. I mouthed the word to myself. Hull.
A woman came out of the front door of Carl’s house wearing slippers, a black bag in her hand. Through the open door, I heard the sound of a Hoover going.
It started to rain. One drip, on its own, then three. Then – all at once – whoosh.
Too late, Lewis, Sean and I all pulled up our anorak hoods.
The boys each held up a hand in goodbye, and rushed off in the direction of their houses.
I took one last look at 56 George Street, staring for a second, but my face got so splattered, I couldn’t look for long.
I hitched my rucksack further up my shoulder and tugged my hood forward. Hard bullets of rain drummed the top of my head as I started to move, then jogged faster still, until I was sprinting around the corner of George Street with my arms and legs flying, running at full pelt towards the safety of home.
If you loved ALL THE FUN OF THE FAIR, you’ll adore Caroline’s heart-warming, laugh-out-loud first novel, THE ADULTS. Click here to read it now!
If you loved All the Fun Of The Fair, don’t miss Caroline Hulse’s hilarious and heartwarming debut novel . . .
Two exes. Their daughter.
And their new partners.
What could possibly go wrong…?
‘Funny, dry and beautifully observed. Highly recommended for anyone whose perfect Christmases never quite go according to plan!’
Gill Sims, author of Why Mummy Drinks
Another achingly funny, uncomfortably relatable novel from Caroline Hulse . . .
Stella and George are getting divorced.
But first, Stella’s mum is throwing a murder mystery party.
All Stella and George have to do is make it through the day without their break-up being discovered – though it will soon turn out that having secrets runs in the family . . .
‘Part Fleabag, part Agatha Christie, Like A House On Fire is everything I love in a book . . . I was hooked from page one.’
Josie Silver, bestselling author of One Day in December
About the Author
Caroline Hulse lives in Manchester with her husband and a small controlling dog. Her books have been published in fourteen languages and optioned for television.
All the Fun of the Fair is her third novel.
Also by Caroline Hulse
The Adults
Like A House On Fire
All the Fun of the Fair
Credits
Caroline Hulse and Orion Fiction would like to thank everyone at Orion who worked on the publication of All the Fun of the Fair in the UK. Special thanks to Ava Fouracre Gildersleve.
Editorial
Emad Akhtar
Lucy Frederick
Celia Killen
Copy editor
Clare Wallis
Proof reader
Marian Reid
Contracts
Anne Goddard
Paul Bulos
Jake Alderson
Production
Ruth Sharvell
Design
Debbie Holmes
Joanna Ridley
Nick May
Editorial Management
Charlie Panayiotou
Jane Hughes
Alice Davis
Finance
Jasdip Nandra
Afeera Ahmed
Elizabeth Beaumont
Sue Baker
Marketing
Helena Fouracre
Audio
Paul Stark
Amber Bates
Publicity
Alex Layt
Rights
Susan Howe
Krystyna Kujawinska
Jessica Purdue
Richard King
Louise Henderson
Sales
Jen Wilson
Esther Waters
Victoria Laws
Rachael Hum
Ellie Kyrke-Smith
Frances Doyle
Georgina Cutler
Operations
Jo Jacobs
Sharon Willis
Lisa Pryde
Lucy Brem
Copyright
First published in Great Britain in 2021 by Orion Fiction,
an imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd.,
Carmelite House, 50 Victoria Embankment
London ec4y 0dz
An Hachette UK Company
Copyright © Caroline Hulse 2021
The moral right of Caroline Hulse to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
All the characters in this book are fictitious, and an
y resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN (eBook) 978 1 4091 9726 3
Typeset by Input Data Services Ltd, Somerset
www.orionbooks.co.uk
All the Fun of the Fair: A hilarious, brilliantly original coming-of-age story that will capture your heart Page 32
