The Boy in the Book

As a boy, Nathan Penlington had loved Choose Your Own Adventure novels. So when he came across a set of the first 106 volumes for sale on eBay, he snapped them up. Picking up the first,The Cave of Time, he was looking forward to a nostalgic trip back to his own childhood. What he discovered instead would send him off on adventure all of his own. As he turned the pages, there was another story being written—in the margins were scribblings by the little boy who had originally owned them, a boy called Terence. There were hints on the coming adventure and jokes, but also something darker. Terence wrote about being bullied at school, the things he hated about himself, of a desperate need for friends. Later Nathan came across a few pages of dairy: Stole money from parents, bought airline ticket, ran away to Scotland. Saturday - detention x2. Left school with intention to kill myself. Drugs . . . Guns? Even though it must have been 20 years since Terence wrote those words, it was clear that they were a cry for help. Nathan decided to answer that call: to find Terence, or at least find out what happened to him. Nathan's search for Terence is at once funny, moving, and more than a little quixotic. There would be dead ends and crossed wires, and along the way Nathan would have to face his own childhood demons. It is a story about the dark places that can exist in any childhood, but also of the sanctuary to be found in books. And at the end of his adventure, Nathan would find one more surprise: a friend.

Nathan Penlington is a poet, performer and writer who has performing alongside Stewart Lee, Daniel Kitson, Ricky Gervais and John Cooper Clarke. His most recent show,Uri and Me, toured the United Kingdom to fantastic reviews in 2011, and he is currently promoting hisChoose Your Own Documentary show, itself based on the discoveries of THE BOY IN THE BOOK; that show won a Fringe First award at Edinburgh in August 2013.