Dying is the Last Thing You Ever Want to Do

Dying is the Last Thing You Ever Want to Do

Seventeen-year-old Josie is a miner's daughter, a good Catholic girl and brilliant at school. She might even get to University because her Aunt May has come into some insurance money. But then a man called Hitler invades Poland and her whole world is ravaged by the violence of war. And then there's a different violence close to her Yorkshire home - when Josie falls for a handsome rogue called Denny who involves her in the criminal underworld she never knew existed. Before long, it's not just the German bombers who are killing her friends. And Josie has got herself a gun.

"Michael Yates's Home Front thriller, in which several plucky but not entirely scrupulous women take on the shady side of Yorkshire during World War Two, is gripping, intelligent, authentic and - uncommonly for such a dark comedy - tremendous fun!"

- Jim Crace, winner of the Guardian Fiction Prize, the Whitbread Award and the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize

"Michael Yates writes with an ear for the everyday magic of speech, and an eye for the telling image that will hold an idea or nudge a story along. His prose does heavy lifting effortlessly, and the reader feels in safe and experienced hands."

- Ian McMillan, poet and broadcaster

"A hugely entertaining, well-crafted book with fascinating characters and plenty of unexpected twists and turns to keep you guessing right to the end."

- Larraine S. Harrison, author of Angel's Child

"Sheffield's Blitz and its criminal underworld are brilliantly brought to life in this captivating tale of the resourceful and intelligent Josie, as she navigates her way through the dark years of WW2. It has all the elements of a thriller that I look for."

- Colin Hollis, author of No Second Thoughts

"Michael Yates successfully conveys what life must have been like for ordinary folk who had to live fast and loose when death was only an air raid away."

- Ivor Tymchak, author of Sex & Death and Other Stories

"... life on the Yorkshire Home Front in World War II... starts with a shocking confession... Well written and meticulously researched."

- Philip Andrews, author of Goodnight Vienna

About the Author

Michael Yates was a reporter and later film critic with the Sheffield Star. He taught playwriting at Harrogate Theatre and creative writing for the WEA. He has had a dozen plays performed by various companies in the north of England, including Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield, Liverpool and Manchester. He has also been Poet in Residence in Whitby and Wakefield Cathedral and in 2021 became Poet in Residence in Mid-Yorkshire Hospitals, writing a set of poems about the struggle against Covid.

Michael Yates's collection 20 Stories High is also published by Armley Press.