Charlie Ellis and the Day Trip to Mars

Film of a young boy flying round the Earth in a homemade spaceship brings the world's media to Horsepool's Hill, where the boy, Charlie Ellis, and his engineer, Steve Atherton, announce they are going on a day trip to Mars, an adventure matched in danger only by their new-found fame.In this, the first novel in the Charlie Ellis series, Paul Sutton fuses the arts of science and storytelling, within a collage of philosophy, humour and pop culture, from Elvis Presley and Star Wars to Andy Warhol and Charles Eames, François Truffaut and Andrzej Wajda, to detail the coming of age of an boy growing up in an era of big technology and big government."A love letter to childhood innocence, real-world science, pop culture (Elvis, Star Wars, The Day the Earth Stood Still and Ken Russell all get a mention), rollicking Boys Own adventure stories, and even Jules Verne and HG Wells. This is the kind of book that isn't written very often, with hefty dollops of charm... the kind of book that makes you smile while you're reading it. If there's any justice to the publishing world, Charlie Ellis should be the next big thing " Starburst Magazine