ECCENTRIC Porthmadog writer Mike Leaver returns with an epic tale about an orphan girl’s fight for family, freedom and a knickerbocker-glory!

In The Ice Cream Terrorist, two forcibly segregated, separate sex, and rurally isolated schools are inhabited by malevolent masters, petrified pupils, kindly matrons and a handful of true heroes – including The Ice Cream Terrorist!

This titanic tale of redemption shows how pupils and staff – blighted by dysfunctional, post-war, orphanage schools in Britain escape and reform the brutal system. Join their journey through school suffering, then on a road trip to a coastal idyll full of kindness, safety, skills and, eventually, different lives.

Mike’s epic saga spans two decades, England and Wales, and many major themes of 20th century life such as homelessness, rebelliousness, lesbian love, and loyalty.

Mike has experience of escaping from state boarding school, so aspects of his personal life feature in the novel, although he admits that they are sometimes exaggerated in the travails and adventures of his larger-than-life, fictional pupils!

The Ice Cream Terrorist will be officially released this Sunday, 28 November, but you can get a glimpse of it at Browsers book shop this Thursday.

On 25 November, to coincide with Porthmadog’s Christmas lights switch-on and late night shopping event, Mike will be at the book shop, signing copies of his latest novel. Catch this eccentric character there from 5pm.

• The Ice cream Terrorist, ISBN: 9781913913687, £10.99