Ben Halls is a London-based writer and journalist. He worked in pubs, off licences and several minimum wage jobs before deciding to return to school to pursue his passion for writing. In 2014 Ben completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Writing, Literature and Publishing at Emerson College in Boston, MA, and completed his Master of Fine Arts at Kingston University in 2016. The Quarry is his debut novel.

Copyright

Published by Dialogue Books

ISBN: 978-0-349-70111-0

All characters and events in this publication, other than those clearly in the public domain, are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Copyright © Ben Halls 2020

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

Lyrics to ‘Who Named the Days’ by Arab Strap written by Aidan Moffat, Malcolm Middleton. © BMG Rights Management

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.

Dialogue Books

Little, Brown Book Group

Carmelite House

50 Victoria Embankment

London EC4Y 0DZ

www.littlebrown.co.uk

www.hachette.co.uk

For my mum and dad.

Without you, my dreams would still only be so.

Contents

About the Author

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Stories

Ham

Little Ones

Dreamers

Central

Modernisation

Coffee

Fix

Exams

Kate

Tea

Acknowledgements