A note on the books I write
Dear readers, I am still here, I am still alive.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about why I write the stories I do, and who they’re really for.
Most of my novels sit somewhere in the space of British social realism. They’re character-led, messy, and uncomfortable at times — stories about love, loyalty, control, and the damage people carry with them. Punk and music culture run through some of the books, but not as nostalgia or glamour. They’re just the environments my characters learned to survive in.
I’ve always struggled to talk about these books publicly because they feel personal in a way that’s hard to summarise. They aren’t redemption stories, and they don’t tidy things up neatly. They’re about people trying to belong, trying to love, trying to grow up — and often getting it wrong.
Over the years, readers have described the work in ways that surprised me: as coming-of-age stories, as love stories, as social realism rather than “punk novels”. That’s helped me see the books more clearly myself. Strip away the noise, and they’re really about human relationships — how they form, fracture, and haunt us.
If you’ve found your way here through one of my books, thank you for sitting with the characters, even when they’re difficult. And if you’re new, I hope you find something honest in the pages.
— Raven
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about why I write the stories I do, and who they’re really for.
Most of my novels sit somewhere in the space of British social realism. They’re character-led, messy, and uncomfortable at times — stories about love, loyalty, control, and the damage people carry with them. Punk and music culture run through some of the books, but not as nostalgia or glamour. They’re just the environments my characters learned to survive in.
I’ve always struggled to talk about these books publicly because they feel personal in a way that’s hard to summarise. They aren’t redemption stories, and they don’t tidy things up neatly. They’re about people trying to belong, trying to love, trying to grow up — and often getting it wrong.
Over the years, readers have described the work in ways that surprised me: as coming-of-age stories, as love stories, as social realism rather than “punk novels”. That’s helped me see the books more clearly myself. Strip away the noise, and they’re really about human relationships — how they form, fracture, and haunt us.
If you’ve found your way here through one of my books, thank you for sitting with the characters, even when they’re difficult. And if you’re new, I hope you find something honest in the pages.
— Raven
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