A Wexford author's story of the tragic death of a young chimney sweep is published in Wicklow

Little George Brewster was the last climbing chimney sweep boy to tragically become stuck in a chimney, and his death in 1875 sparked a changing attitude towards child labour in Britain and Ireland.

However, the author has chosen Birr Castle in County Offaly as the setting for her story. This is Eve's third historical fantasy novel for children aged 10 and over.

Speaking about the inspiration behind “The Last Boy,” Eve said one of the most beautiful things about storytelling is “making the unimaginable imaginable.”

“There are no limits – we can levitate people, we can whiten the night sky with shooting stars, we can even have a cup of tea with a ghost. It may seem too far-fetched, however, to do something as outlandish as sending a small child down a narrow chimney, but truth can be stranger than fiction, or so they say, for there was a real Brewster.”

George Brewster was born in London in 1863. Although it was a time of great industry and invention, according to Eve, it was extremely hard times for many.

“Parents might have had no choice but to send their young children to work in factories and mines, or even to sell a beloved child to a master chimney sweep for a few shillings. They could do that or starve – and sometimes they were sent up a chimney and got stuck.”

That's what happened to 12-year-old George. On February 11, 1875, George took off his coat, pulled his climbing cap over his face, and climbed into the chimney of a boiler at the Fulbourn Mental Asylum in Cambridge.

“The trigger was narrow, only 12 inches by 6 inches, and a few minutes later it was clear George was in trouble,” Eve explained.

Newspaper reports of the terrible tragedy soon caught the attention of the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, also known as the “Poor Man's Earl”, and the following September he successfully pushed a new law through Parliament: the Chimney Sweepers Act of 1875.

This sparked a shift in attitudes towards child labour law across all industries. Eve said that millions of working children's lives had been changed by George, and yet George was forgotten.

“As a writer, I wondered what would have happened if the proverbial light he saw at the end of the tunnel on that fateful day had been not the end but the beginning of his adventure, and so I wrote this story.”

Brewster's rise from rags to riches in The Last Boy may be pure fantasy, and Eve has taken “some liberties” such as moving Brewster from Cambridge in England to Birr Castle in Ireland. But like Brewster himself, most of the Irish characters are inspired by real people: from Lady Rosse to her only daughter Alice; from Brewster's arch-enemy Charles, who became one of the world's greatest scientists and inventor of the compound steam turbine; to Dr Grubb, who helped design the spectacular six-foot-diameter Leviathan mirror at Birr Castle; from the astronomer Sir Robert Ball, the boys' tutor; to Alice's aunt Mary Ward, a renowned naturalist, astronomer, microscopist, author and the first person to die in a fatal road accident.

“One character who plays a central role in the story is Lady Rosse (Mary Parsons, born 1813). Both in my story and in real life, she was an amateur astronomer, a pioneering photographer, a devoted mother and a powerful and impressive woman,” said Eve.

“Together with her husband William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse, she built what was then the largest telescope in the world, the Leviathan, which you can see today alongside a remarkable scientific exhibition at Birr Castle.

“Brewster wishes from every star in this storm to be the last climbing boy ever. So ultimately, The Last Boy is a story about being brave enough to believe in and wish for better things. Wishes exist in hopeful hearts, they inspire ambition and dreams of better things, they bring smiles and delicious anticipation. Wishes are the tiny seeds of change and wishes are hope.”

Eve commented on the book's appeal to children, saying she wanted the story to be “one of those tiny seeds that at least makes people believe in hope again, and where that succeeds, we see change.”

“Child labor is a persistent problem around the world and every child has the right to have their story told. It may seem like an astronomical solution is needed to solve the problem, but change can happen if we hope and want it badly enough to take action.”

The launch party for The Last Boy will take place on Saturday 14 September at 4pm at Halfway up the Stairs Children's Bookshop in Greystones.