The beast on the broch - John K. Fulton

A lonely girl. A wild beast. An unforgettable friendship.12-year-old Talorca is a Pictish girl living in North-east Scotland in 799 AD.When Gaelic-speaking Dalriadans arrive in her village, her world is turned upside down. Her only friend is the mythical Pictish Beast, who has been injured by the Dalriadans.Talorca decides to take a stand against the intruders and hatches a plan to drive them out. But she can only do that with the help of the wild beast on the broch.

John K Fulton is the son of a lighthouse keeper, and grew up all around the coast of Scotland, including Tarbat Ness Lighthouse near Portmahomack, which became the inspiration for the setting ofThe Beast on the Broch. The often remote and lonely locations of his childhood instilled in him a life-long love of books and the sea. After going to school in Edinburgh, Portmahomack, Portree, and Montrose, he studied Classics at the University of St. Andrews, then went on to take a Masters in IT at the University of Dundee. This led to a career as a technical author, which is just like being a proper author, except it'sexcruciatingly boring.
He now lives in Leicester with his partner Sandra. While Leicester is about as far from the sea as you can get in the UK, their home is stuffed with books, which is the next-best thing. In 2015 his first novel,The Wreck of the Argyll, a First World War spy thriller, won the Great War Dundee Children's Book Prize and will be re-issued by Cranachan in early 2018. He regularly blogs and reviews books atwww.johnkfulton.com