October 2026
‘Cracking’ coming-of-age novel evokes gospel-hall Belfast
 
What Peter Knew by James Simpson 
 
Peter Curry is born into a post-Blitz Belfast world, to a good-looking but vulnerable single mother, at a time when ‘respectability’ is still highly prized. They live an unsupported marginalised life, off-grid in a disused railway carriage. 
Mindful of the city’s curtain-twitching, gospel hall society, which is happy to leave him on the fringes, as he enters his teens Peter must look out for his adoring but neglectful ‘Ma’. He must also keep an eye out for his slow-witted but well-meaning pal, Billy Peden. All of which becomes more difficult when he becomes obsessed with the feisty, cigarette-smoking Rosie Wardlow. Every ounce of Peter’s resilience is then called upon when his ma slumps into psychosis and he himself is admitted to care. Her slow road to recovery is impeded further by a dangerous older gang targeting Peter.  
Author Jim Simpson incorporates his own pre-Troubles Belfast childhood while sculpting this exceptional coming-of-age novel. Born in 1949 and reared in rural Castlereagh, Simpson came late to writing. In this his second novel, he draws on his post-war memory of contrasts, placing his story in the fictional townland of Carnabrack, an in-between place of innocence, but also of threat; a place of growing prosperity, but residual inequality. 
‘We too, lived on the rural rim,’ says Simpson, ‘with a terrific view of the city, close to fields and farms. I recall the mysterious, pulsating industrial landscape laid out below us; tall chimney stacks belching smoke; the swinging jibs of cranes. The vastness of it all. The throb, and clang of girders. The gospel missions.’ 
The author’s father worked for a milling firm on Queen’s Quay but was also a part-time preacher: ‘I myself enjoyed a “Just William” world of catapults, river damming, hut-building, penknives and roasting spuds in open fires - of freedom summers lived outdoors.’ 
But there was also sectarian division. ‘You kept to your own part of town. We had our flag and they had theirs. We also had well-dressed kids at primary school, but some with dripping noses, and no hanky.’ 
It is in this same ill-divided world that Peter Curry finds out his ma had once been offered a part ‘in the films’ but that she had turned it down because she was expecting him. With a cinematic recall of red trolley buses, heavy horses and Belfast voices ringing in his ears, Simpson creates a kaleidoscope of characters, entering their worlds with enthusiastic and empathetic abandon. A practicing Methodist, Simpson says that Peter is tough on harsh religion and hypocrisy but soft on kindness and compassion. Ultimately, he says, this is a love story between Peter and his mother. It is also an exploration of curiosity, social justice and personal courage. Broadcaster and academic, Ian Sansom characterised James Simpson’s 2021 short story anthology Smokes and Birds as ‘pure runaway genius.’ His debut novel True Colours (Colmcille Press, 2024) also won critical acclaim. Now, award-winning writer Bernie McGill describes his new Belfast novel as ‘an absolutely cracking read’.
What Peter Knew is supported by Derry City & Strabane District Council’s Individual Artist Award.