Rowan the Strange by Julie Hearn

Hearn is skilled at conveying the place and the time, but it is in the detail of human interactions that her novel is particularly remarkable. The Sunday Times

Rowan the Strange works perfectly as a strangely beautiful...story. It is nothing short of extraordinary.

The Guardian

How does a doctor examine a person's brain?

They won't use any knives on me, will they?

Rowan knows he is strange. But dangerous?

He didn't mean to scare his sister. In his right mind, he wouldn't hurt a fly.

But there's a place he can go where they say they can fix his mind . . .

Beyond the bars on the window, England is at war.

Behind them, Rowan's own battle is only just beginning.

This amazing story gives a thought-provoking look at life in an asylum and the experimental treatments practised at the start of the Second World War. For Rowan, nobody could ever have predicted the effect these treatments would have...

Shock and war - Philip Ardagh is drawn into an extraordinary tale of medical experimentation...

About the Author


At the age of eight, Julie wrote her first novel about a psychedelic dragon who longed to be plain green or brown. Sadly her teacher didn't have time to read the story and Julie vowed never to write anything that ambitious again!

Julie went on to become a journalist. She wrote for a daily newspaper in Australia, then lived in Spain for a while, before returning to England and working as a features editor and 'mother and baby' columnist. In 1994, Julie started a degree in Education, but switched to English when she realized teaching wasn't for her.

She then went on to complete a Master of Studies at Oxford University in Women's Studies, but found academia creatively restrictive. An idea for her Masters thesis became her inspiration for Follow Me Down.  Julie lives in Oxfordshire and has one daughter, Tilly.

To find out more about the author click here to go to her website...

Listen to the author talk about Rowan the Strange...