Work in Progress

My next published novel is The Memory of Trees, which comes out at the end of June and is largely located in a welsh coastal wilderness. The story involves the sinister repercussions of restoring an ancient and malevolent forest there and echoes the Arthurian legend with a strong nod to the evil enchantress Morgana le Fay.
It couldn't be a bigger contrast to the novel I'm working on now. That's set predominantly in London in the 1880s and the present day and involves a religious struggle against satanic powers secretly waged since the establishment of Christianity.
It's my belief that London can loom so large in a story set there it can have a presence as powerful as a principal character. Much of my story is set in North Lambeth, where I lived for 20 years and which still wears its Victorian history in buildings, lamp posts and railings on practically every street.
I've also been looking at Gustave Dore's London images, done in the 1860s, to get the minutiae right. Apparently he loved London, but you wouldn't know it. His images of the poor in the ramshackle slums of Whitechapel look like a vision of Hell.
The city really was like that; murky, teeming, ill-lit, bustling and filthy. It's a fascinating place in which to set a narrative. I'm really enjoying the writing. Living there would have been another matter entirely.