Hobthrush (Paperback)

In October 1987, on a bleak Northumbrian shore, Arnold Prestwick wakes bruised, disorientated, and alone. By the time his memory resurfaces, he knows two things for certain: a man has been murdered, and Arnold is being positioned to take the blame. What begins as a single night of violence spirals into a relentless journey through fear, grief, and political extremism at the end of the Cold War.

Still shattered by the death of his wife at a peace protest, Arnold has allowed himself to be drawn into the orbit of a radical left‑wing group, fuelled by anger and the promise of justice. But their enemies - the far right, ruthless and well funded - are already several steps ahead. Framed, manipulated, and hunted, Arnold is pushed towards Holy Island, a place of deep personal and spiritual meaning, now transformed into a flashpoint for nuclear weapons and violent confrontation.

As past and present collide, Arnold must navigate betrayal, memory, and his own capacity for violence. Surrounded by forces that treat human lives as expendable, he faces an unbearable question: can vengeance ever be separated from becoming what you despise?

Set against the harsh beauty of the North East coast, Hobthrush is a powerful, suspenseful novel about ideology, loss, and moral collapse. It blends political thriller with intimate psychological drama, asking what remains of faith, love, and decency when a world is driven to extremes.

Sue Cullimore is a retired lecturer in Education, as was her father, Tom Walker. Sue was born and brought up on Tyneside and went to school in Newcastle. Her great-grandfather was a fisherman on Holy Island and her family connections with the Island were still strong when she was growing up.

Tom Walker was born in 1926 in Byker, Newcastle upon Tyne. He had a family connection with Holy Island which remained strong throughout his life. This is reflected in the novel Hobthrush.

Tom won a scholarship to Dame Allan’s School in Newcastle. At 18 years old in 1944, he became a Bevin Boy, working for one year at Backworth Colliery, just north of Newcastle, a tough but formative experience for him. After a short stint in the Royal Navy, he read English Language and Literature at King’s College, Newcastle, then part of Durham University, gaining his B.A.Hons degree in the late 1940s. In 1953 he married Pat McGuinness. Susan, their only child, was born in 1954.

After teaching in secondary schools, he became a senior lecturer at Newcastle-upon-Tyne College of Education in Northumberland Road in the early 1960s. He was responsible for training teachers of English, some of whom were mature students changing career. He wrote and directed a version of “Everyman”, an early morality play, which was performed by his students and colleagues in the Church of St Thomas the Martyr in 1965. The college became incorporated into the new, much bigger Newcastle Polytechnic in 1974, which Tom always slightly regretted. He drew on many of these experiences for Hobthrush.

He loved listening to people talk, easily picking up accents and dialect wherever he went. He read widely and wrote poetry and prose throughout his life. He loved landscapes, history, wildlife, painting, beer and good conversation.

Tom had been brought up by Presbyterian parents but converted to Catholicism in the 1990s. He suffered a major stroke and spent the last few years of his life in a care home in Newcastle. He was with his wife Pat in the home, and they were cared for together. They had been married for nearly sixty years. He died in 2013.