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''Dear Nobody'' is a realistic
young-adult novel Young adult fiction (YA) is a category of fiction written for readers from 12 to 18 years of age. While the genre is primarily targeted at adolescents, approximately half of YA readers are adults. The subject matter and genres of YA correlate ...
by
Berlie Doherty Berlie Doherty (born 6 November 1943) is an English novelist, poet, playwright and screenwriter. She is best known for children's books, for which she has twice won the Carnegie Medal. She has also written novels for adults, plays for theatre an ...
, published by Hamilton in 1991. Set in the
northern England Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North Country, or simply the North, is the northern area of England. It broadly corresponds to the former borders of Angle Northumbria, the Anglo-Scandinavian Kingdom of Jorvik, and the ...
city of
Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...
, it features an unplanned teenage pregnancy and tells the story of its effect on the teenagers and their families. Doherty won the annual Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book by a British subject. Through 2012 she is one of seven writers with two such honors, having won the 1986 Medal for ''
Granny Was a Buffer Girl ''Granny Was a Buffer Girl'' is a realistic young-adult novel by Berlie Doherty, published by Methuen in 1986. It recounts stories of love, loyalty and change in several generations of a Sheffield family from the 1930s to the 1980s, linking the ...
''. Also set in Sheffield, the earlier novel is a family saga whose point of entry is the Sheffield cutlery industry.
Orchard Books Grolier was one of the largest American publishers of general encyclopedias, including '' The Book of Knowledge'' (1910), ''The New Book of Knowledge'' (1966), ''The New Book of Popular Science'' (1972), ''Encyclopedia Americana'' (1945), ''Acad ...
published the first U.S. edition in 1992. ''Dear Nobody'' has been translated into many languages, and the stage version is often performed.


Plot summary

The novel is split between two points of view, a
first-person narrative A first-person narrative is a mode of storytelling in which a storyteller recounts events from their own point of view using the first person It may be narrated by a first-person protagonist (or other focal character), first-person re-telle ...
presenting the events as Chris recalls them in retrospect, interspersed with a series of letters from Helen to their unborn child (Nobody), telling her side of the story as she experiences it. The framing sequence is set in autumn as Chris is on the verge of leaving for Newcastle University. A parcel of letters is delivered for him, and he recognizes Helen's handwriting. He begins to read the letters, all addressed to "Dear Nobody", and they remind him of the past nine months. The subsequent chapter headings are all the names of months, beginning with January. Helen and Chris make love for the first, and only, time. Chris is prompted to ask his father about his marriage breakdown, and decides to get in touch with his mother. Shortly afterwards Helen begins to fear she is pregnant. Chris is disturbed by her distant behaviour. In late February she finally tells him her suspicions, and writes her first letter to "Dear Nobody": "You're only a shadow. You're only a whisper... Leave me alone. Go away. Go away. Please, please, go away." Later when a pregnancy test proves positive, she tries to abort the pregnancy by going riding, risking her life in a wild gallop, to no avail. In April, Helen's mother finds out, and arranges for her to go to an
abortion clinic Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregnan ...
. However, Helen decides to keep the baby. Mrs Garton refuses to have Chris in the house, but he and Helen continue to see each other. They visit Chris's mother in Carlisle. In June, Helen and Chris sit their
A-levels The A-Level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational au ...
. After they are over Helen tells Chris she has decided they should break up, believing it is best for both of them. Chris is bewildered, and feels bereft. To get away from all the memories in Sheffield, he goes to France with Tom. He meets a girl called Bryn, but cannot forget Helen. In September, Helen learns her mother's greatest secret – that she is illegitimate, a great disgrace when she was growing up – and finally begins to understand her. When her contractions start, she has a sudden impulse to send her "Dear Nobody" letters to Chris. Chris finishes reading the letters, realizes the baby is coming and rushes to the hospital, where he meets his newborn daughter, Amy.


Characters

*Christopher Marshall, usually called Chris, a student in his last year of school, planning to study English at Newcastle University *Helen Garton, sometimes called Nell, Chris's girlfriend, also in her last year at school, and planning to go to music college in Manchester *Nobody/Amy, their baby ;Chris's family *Alan Marshall, Chris's father, an amateur potter *Guy Marshall, Chris's younger brother *Joan, Chris's mother, a professional photographer and climber, who left home when he was 10 to live with Don *Don, Joan's partner, a keen climber *Jill, Joan's sister, who runs a riding stable near Sheffield ;Helen's family *Ted Garton, Helen's father, works in the university library and plays in a jazz band *Alice Garton, Helen's mother, who works in a bank *Robbie Garton, Helen's younger brother *Grandad, Alice's stepfather, Helen's grandfather *Nan, Alice's mother, Helen's grandmother ;Friends *Tom, Chris's best friend *Ruthlyn, Helen's best friend *Bryn, a Welsh girl who grows close to Chris but cannot take Helen's place *Menai, Bryn's friend


Literary significance and reception

Beside the 1991 Carnegie Medal for British children's books, ''Dear Nobody'' won the Japanese
Sankei Children's Book Award , literally " Sankei Children's Publishing Culture Award", is a major and the oldest children's literary awards in Japan. The Sankei Children's Book Award annually recognizes the preceding year's "most distinguished Japanese Children's litera ...
in 1994. It also made shortlists for the Writers Guild of Great Britain Award, the Society of Authors Book of the Year, the Sheffield Award, and the Federation of Children's Book Groups Award. The stage version won the Writers Guild of Great Britain Award in 1992."Dear Nobody"
Discussion by Berlie Doherty. Retrieved 2012-09-10.
Beside English-language editions around the world, ''Dear Nobody'' has been translated and published in Bulgaria, Catalonia, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Wales. Doherty describes the book as being essentially about love: "It is about two young people who love each other, but it's also about family love, the ways in which love can go wrong, how sometimes it makes us do things that aren't sensible or that hurt people, how sometimes it turns to hate and drives people and families apart". The emotional intensity of the novel is well attested: "I have never read a book that evokes so vividly how it feels to be a teenager in love" ''Daily Telegraph''; "The aunt, parents, grandparents and siblings bring in various strands of subplot that give the book a satisfying complexity while losing nothing of the intensity of Helen and Chris's developing predicament and the building pressures they're under." John Murray's essay on the novel's narrative technique focuses on the novel as a literary artefact and discuses how its structure affects the reader.


Adaptations

''Dear Nobody'' has been adapted as a
BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
play, a theatre play and a television film for
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
produced by Andy Rowley and starring
Sean Maguire Sean Maguire (born 18 April 1976 in Ilford, London) is a British-American actor and singer, who rose to fame in 1988 when at the age of eleven he took on the role of "Tegs" Ratcliffe on the BBC children's drama ''Grange Hill'', in which he r ...
and Katie Blake. The playscript has been published by Collins in the Plays Plus series and it has been performed in schools and theatres around the world. Doherty is enthusiastic about the productions: "I have seen so many interpretations of Chris and Helen and the other actors that I almost can't remember how I imagined my originals to be! I am just endlessly fascinated by the different ways of representing them, and always impressed by the actors' ability to bring the characters to life."


See also


References


External links

—immediately, first US edition {{s-end 1991 British novels 1991 children's books British young adult novels Carnegie Medal in Literature winning works Novels set in Sheffield Novels about teenage pregnancy Hamish Hamilton books Children's books set in Yorkshire