I'd been kicked out of two boarding schools and the last thing I wanted was to be here, on the East Anglian coast, in a third. But without St Oswald's, I would not have discovered the fisherman's hut with its roaring fire, its striped blankets, its sea monster stew.

Meg Rosoff, multi award winning author of How I Live Now, explores the pain of first love and coming-of-age in her compelling novel What I Was, which was once described by The Times as 'Samuel Beckett on ecstasy.'

Shall I tell you about the year I discovered love?

I'd been kicked out of two boarding schools and the last thing I wanted was to be here, on the East Anglian coast, in a third.

But without St Oswald's, I would not have discovered the fisherman's hut with its roaring fire, its striped blankets, its sea monster stew.

Without St Oswald's, I would not have met the boy with the beautiful eyes, the flickering half-smile, and no past.

Without St Oswald's I would not have met Finn.

And without Finn, there would be no story.

Shall we begin?

' . . . thrilling and sensitively told' - Observer

' . . . mordantly funny and searingly well written' - The Times

Bestselling author Meg Rosoff has received great critical acclaim since the publication of her first novel How I Live Now (winner of the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize). Her other novels, Just in Case (winner of the 2007 Carnegie Medal) and The Bride's Farewell, are also available from Puffin. Follow Meg on Twitter @megrosoff.