ABIDE WITH ME by Ian Ayris

Two boys. John and Kenny. One streetwise and football mad, the other cold and unfathomable.
It's nineteen-seventy-five. The heart of London's East End.
As John celebrates the Hammers beating Fulham in the Cup Final, Kenny tumbles out the door of the new people's house across the street having taken a beating of a different kind.
When the new school year begins, John befriends Kenny, defending him from the ridicule of his classmates.
But when you become mates with someone as odd, as downright terrifying as Kenny, nothing is ever straightforward.
Amidst the turbulent years of late seventies London, the lives of John and Kenny spiral out of control.
They meet again, years later, and local villain, Ronnie Swordfish, is after Kenny's head. All John can do is watch. Kenny, he ain't saying a word.

He never does.

So when Ronnie gives the order to fetch his three foot Samurai sword, John thinks the game's all but up.

Thing is, he don't know the half of it . . .

Abide With Me is a story of football, friendship, and hope.

And gangsters.

A story of how two boys walked blind into the darkness . . . and emerged as men.
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'I absolutely loved Abide With Me and in places was very moved, to both laughter, and tears' Trevor Drane - Revelation Films

'It's literary, it's crime. Expect to be moved and taken to a whole different world that is as real as your own' Eric Beetner - Author of Dig Two Graves

'An absolute straight-in-the-back-of-the-net knockout of a story'Jason Michel - Pulp Metal Magazine

'One of the most memorable books I've read in a long time'Chris Rhatigan - Death By Killing

'A bruising, emotional roller coaster of a read, one Ian Ayris should be truly proud of - a remarkable debut novel' Alan Griffiths - Brit Grit

'An astounding story, with an original voice and style'
Crime Fiction Lover

'A remarkable first novel'
Naomi Johnson - The Drowning Machine