‘Keeping Control’ is a ‘Rites of Passage’ story with a twist. Set in the mid 1980s’ in a small town in the foothills of the Lancashire Pennines, it tells the story of a teenage girls’ desire to break away from the trials and tribulations of family life, and become an independant woman. Unfortunately the route she takes to meet these aims turns out to be disasterously wrong, and she finds herself involved with a man whom she expected to be her saviour, but who turns out to be anything but. Many of us will be able to associate ourselves with the problems that beset Jenny in her search for happiness. This is a story about real people having to face up to real problems in their everyday lives. We have all had to deal with similar situations - we all survive them to varying degrees. At some point, we have to take control of our lives and do what we think is right; at times like this, we learn who our friends really are. I have tried to make this book amusing and light-hearted, but just as in real life, there are serious matters involved here, and a darker theme emerges as you read on. Life can never be a bed of roses, it’s just a case of how often we are pricked by the thorns.