Coming soon - The Dark between the Trees!

May I present my debut novel, The Dark Between the Trees, coming October 2022 from Solaris!

   

I knew it was The Book from the moment I wrote the first sentence. I’ve been noodling about with novel-writing for more than a decade, and as soon as I started The Dark Between the Trees, it felt different. Not perfect, and it was still a long road and a lot of iterative, often frustrating work getting it into the right shape, but I knew this was the first one I really, really wanted to share.

Luckily for me, my agent, Anne Perry, and my editor, Michael Rowley at Solaris/Rebellion, saw that spark as well. The last few months, because of their enthusiasm, I’ve felt qualitatively different about my writing. It’s more forceful and less echoey, it feels less like I’m trying to eavesdrop on something from two rooms away. I wouldn’t say it’s been easier to write, but different things are difficult now, which means I’ve levelled up.

The Dark Between the Trees was written for people who started a degree and felt like they were in over their heads. It’s for people who read around the subject without knowing or caring if the books they’re reading have gaps in them. It’s for people who like to go for long walks in the countryside, but never want to be the one holding the map. It’s for the ones who like to hear the ghost stories, and then immediately find out about the history behind them, and then the historiography underneath the history, before going back and listening to the ghost story again. It’s for people who like to make up the answers and then see how close they got.

I could try to be coy about this, but it really wouldn’t work: I think this book is so great. I’m so proud of it. This is the kind of book that, if someone else wrote it, four people would get me for Christmas, and I would take the hint. I can’t wait for you to be able to read it.