'The book that everyone will be talking about this year: a staggering
work of honesty, empathy and humanity, wholly unlike anything else you
will have read' Terri White
On the evening of Halloween in 2015, Morgan Hehir was walking with
friends close to Nuneaton town centre when they were viciously attacked
by a group of strangers. Morgan was stabbed, and died hours later in
hospital. He was twenty years old and loved making music with his band,
going to the football with his mates, having a laugh; a talented
graffiti artist who dreamed of moving away and building a life for
himself by the sea.
From the moment he heard the news, Morgan's father Colin Hehir began to
keep an extraordinary diary. It became a record not only of the
immediate aftermath of his son's murder, but also a chronicle of his
family's evolving grief, the trial of Morgan's killers, and his personal
fight to unravel the lies, mistakes and cover-ups that led to a young
man with a history of violence being free to take Morgan's life that
night.
Inspired by this diary, About a Son is a unique and deeply moving
exploration of love and loss and a groundbreaking work of creative
non-fiction. Part true crime, part memoir, it tells the story of a
shocking murder, the emotional repercussions, and the failures that
enabled it to take place. It shows how grief affects and changes us, and
asks what justice means if the truth is not heard. It asks what can be
learned, and where we go from here.
