Once a Monster

<p><b>'Robert Dinsdale mixes history and mythology with great panache . . . Richly textured and with an appropriately labyrinthine plot, this is a book that explores the monster inside man &mdash; and vice versa. Book of the Month' <i>Sunday Times</i></b><br><br><br>London, 1861: Ten-year-old Nell belongs to a crew of mudlarks who work a stretch of the Thames along the Ratcliffe Highway. An orphan since her mother died four years past, leaving Nell with only broken dreams and a pair of satin slippers in her possession, she spends her days dredging up coals, copper and pieces of iron spilled by the river barges &ndash; searching for treasure in the mud in order to appease her master, Benjamin Murdstone.<br><br>But one day, Nell discovers a body on the shore. It&rsquo;s not the first corpse she&rsquo;s encountered, but by far the strangest. Nearly seven feet tall, the creature has matted hair covering his