The narrator of this story doesn't just see colours, he feels them.

At home or slogging away in his parents' garage and store, the colour is mainly panic-button red.

But for a short time on Saturdays, visiting old Mrs Pinder - Pinny - a hopeful daffodil yellow floods in.

Best of all, though, is feelgood green - the colour he gets from the portrait of former local landowner, William Bowhays Johns.

Over the following weeks, the tragic story of this man, dubbed "The Flower King", comes to have an increasingly dramatic and moving influence on the life of the boy and those around him. "The Flower King" is Lesley Howarth's first novel, and was shortlisted for both the Whitbread Children's Novel Award and the Guardian Children's Fiction Award.

She is also the author of "Maphead" and "Weather-eye".