To The Last Page

I'm not sure what format the published edition will take, but the advance proof of Tin Man is a beautiful little bright yellow clothbound hardcover without a dust-jacket. A little white heart is etched in the corner, it's " a celebration of the transcendent power of the colour yellow ", in the words of Sarah Winman, a description she applies to the use of colour in Van Gogh's 'Sunflowers'. Or, to be precise, to a painted copy of Van Gogh's 'Sunflowers', a painting won as a prize in a raffle by Ellis Judd's mum, Dora when she was pregnant with him in 1950. In 1996 however, which is the present day as far as the majority of Tin Man  is concerned, the painting adored by his mother is now just a memory of a troubled family life that has finally taken its toll on the 46 year old Ellis, who has spend the majority of them working in the car plant in Cowley, hammering out little bumps in the body work. Like a series of doors, all of the openings t...