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Sea Defences
‘Poetry in prose. Astutely observed’ Fiona Erskine Rachel, a trainee vicar struggling to bond with her flock in the coastal town of Holthorpe, learns the terrifying power of the North Sea when her six-year-old daughter goes missing on the beach. Meanwhile Mary, a defiant and distrustful loner, is fighting her own battle against nature as the crumbling Norfolk shoreline brings her clifftop home ever closer to destruction. Both scarred by life, the two women are drawn into an unlikely friendship, but Mary’s misfit son Adam is nursing a secret. For Rachel, it will subject her battered faith to its greatest will she be strong enough to forgive? In her taut, lyrical debut novel, Hilary Taylor weaves the bleak power of the East Anglian winter into a searingly honest psychological drama, as gripping as any thriller.
- GenresFiction
338 pages, Paperback
Published January 14, 2023
9 people are currently reading
81 people want to read
About the author
Hilary Taylor
3 books1 followerHilary Taylor is a graduate of Edinburgh University and lives in Suffolk, where she taught for almost twenty years. She has five grown-up children and, at the last count, eight grandchildren. Her short fiction has been published in magazines and anthologies and she was the winner of the Bridport Prize for Flash Fiction in 2022. Sea Defences, her first novel, began life as a prize-winning short story, placed third in the Bath Short Story Award.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
March 9, 2023
Sometimes you put a hold on a book at your library because you read a review somewhere and it piqued your interest. This is the case with Sea Defences by Hilary Taylor – a book I reserved based on it being set in Norfolk, England (where my father is from) and dealing with the topic of coastal erosion and managed retreat. (The latter a personal and work interest). What I got was a highly readable, enjoyable and fast-paced whodunnit featuring two well-realised female characters, Rachel a trainee vicar and mother, and Mary a feisty loner living in a home slowly being lost to the sea.
During a family walk along the beach, Rachel’s daughter goes missing – her body is later found washed up in an isolated cove amongst the seaweed. From this tragedy, the lives of Rachel and Mary become intertwined as they negotiate (in quite different ways) the beauty and peaceful energy of the sea with the fact it ha taken and is taking something from them. How do you defend yourself from the sea?
I am a sucker for a literary thriller like Sea Defences that deals with big issues (rather than bloody slashers). I will be recommending this to anyone who likes a good read with an accessible plot and interesting characters.
Potential cw: As Rachel is a trainee vicar, there are several discussions of faith and church. However, Taylor avoids proselytising to her readers.
During a family walk along the beach, Rachel’s daughter goes missing – her body is later found washed up in an isolated cove amongst the seaweed. From this tragedy, the lives of Rachel and Mary become intertwined as they negotiate (in quite different ways) the beauty and peaceful energy of the sea with the fact it ha taken and is taking something from them. How do you defend yourself from the sea?
I am a sucker for a literary thriller like Sea Defences that deals with big issues (rather than bloody slashers). I will be recommending this to anyone who likes a good read with an accessible plot and interesting characters.
Potential cw: As Rachel is a trainee vicar, there are several discussions of faith and church. However, Taylor avoids proselytising to her readers.
January 5, 2024
A Norfolk based psychological thriller debut-novel, published by Lightning Press the fictional imprint of the small independent press Eye Books (UK publisher of “Their Brilliant Careers: The Fantastic Life of Sixteen Extraordinary Australian Writers” which itself was both brilliant and fantastic).
The book is set in the fictional town of Holthorpe which I think is on the far Eastern corner of the North Norfolk Coast and I bought a signed copy of the book (in what the book itself calls ”the dull, purposeless days between Christmas and New Year when meals merge into one another and daylight never breaks through” in the wonderful independent Holt Bookshop (which the Suffolk-based author herself has Tweeted is the “nearest independent bookshop to the novel’s setting”).
The novel grew out of a writing group challenge (based on a motivation of “atonement” and the inclusion of a storm) which in turn became a short story which won third prize in the Bath Short Story Award in 2018. As an aside the author is clearly very versatile – in 2022 she won the Bridport Prize for Flash Fiction; and on the basis of this read I can also say she is also an accomplished novelist.
The novel features two families (whose paths interact throughout the novel)
Rachel is a trainee vicar, married to Christopher and with two children: ten-year-old Jamie and six-year-old Hannah. We quickly learn that Rachel’s mother (who came to Christian faith at the same time as the 15-year-old Rachel, after Rachel’s alcoholic father finally left home) died around the time of Heather’s birth and that Rachel herself suffered from severe post-natal depression.
Mary is a landscape gardener who lives with her twenty-year-old, vulnerable-adult son Adam, in the last remaining house on the crumbling cliffs above Holthorpe. Her neighbours have all taken advantage of rollback schemes to move inland but the defiant and somewhat eccentric Mary refuses to abandon her house even as land around her is reclaimed by the waves. Adam meanwhile is obsessed with collecting fossils from the foot of the cliffs, but subject to bullying by an old schoolmate – trying to assist others (particularly children) his seemingly well-meaning attempts are often seen as inappropriate by others given his age, sex and educational ability.
The narrative tension in the novel comes from the beachside disappearance of Hannah while the family are distracted by an escaped dog they are walking. When Hannah’s drowned body (missing just a sock and a shoe) is found days later further up the Coast, the unspoken and sometime spoken recriminations unsurprisingly tears the family apart – Jamie reacting particularly badly in ways which rebound even further on the family, and Rachel suffering a crisis of faith.
And from some short and intense sections from Adam’s interior viewpoint we realise, almost from the start of the novel, that he was involved in her disappearance – something he is desperately trying to forget.
But as the story develops the two families are drawn together – at first by friendship between Mary and Rachel but then more intensely.
For me one of the real strengths of this novel lies in its mature and considered treatment of Christian faith and doubt – particularly as Rachel struggles to believe in a God that would allow her child to die, a non-Christian friend points out that one cannot stop believing in a God that allows suffering when one themselves is a victim of that suffering. And as Rachel’s faith is challenged so is the atheism of Christopher and Mary.
The other is the character of Mary and the way in which the crumbling of her house literally around her cleverly mirrors the shaky foundations of Mary’s faith.
And the author also pulls the story together after a dramatic episode followed by a satisfactory but not excessively sentimental ending.
The book is set in the fictional town of Holthorpe which I think is on the far Eastern corner of the North Norfolk Coast and I bought a signed copy of the book (in what the book itself calls ”the dull, purposeless days between Christmas and New Year when meals merge into one another and daylight never breaks through” in the wonderful independent Holt Bookshop (which the Suffolk-based author herself has Tweeted is the “nearest independent bookshop to the novel’s setting”).
The novel grew out of a writing group challenge (based on a motivation of “atonement” and the inclusion of a storm) which in turn became a short story which won third prize in the Bath Short Story Award in 2018. As an aside the author is clearly very versatile – in 2022 she won the Bridport Prize for Flash Fiction; and on the basis of this read I can also say she is also an accomplished novelist.
The novel features two families (whose paths interact throughout the novel)
Rachel is a trainee vicar, married to Christopher and with two children: ten-year-old Jamie and six-year-old Hannah. We quickly learn that Rachel’s mother (who came to Christian faith at the same time as the 15-year-old Rachel, after Rachel’s alcoholic father finally left home) died around the time of Heather’s birth and that Rachel herself suffered from severe post-natal depression.
Mary is a landscape gardener who lives with her twenty-year-old, vulnerable-adult son Adam, in the last remaining house on the crumbling cliffs above Holthorpe. Her neighbours have all taken advantage of rollback schemes to move inland but the defiant and somewhat eccentric Mary refuses to abandon her house even as land around her is reclaimed by the waves. Adam meanwhile is obsessed with collecting fossils from the foot of the cliffs, but subject to bullying by an old schoolmate – trying to assist others (particularly children) his seemingly well-meaning attempts are often seen as inappropriate by others given his age, sex and educational ability.
The narrative tension in the novel comes from the beachside disappearance of Hannah while the family are distracted by an escaped dog they are walking. When Hannah’s drowned body (missing just a sock and a shoe) is found days later further up the Coast, the unspoken and sometime spoken recriminations unsurprisingly tears the family apart – Jamie reacting particularly badly in ways which rebound even further on the family, and Rachel suffering a crisis of faith.
And from some short and intense sections from Adam’s interior viewpoint we realise, almost from the start of the novel, that he was involved in her disappearance – something he is desperately trying to forget.
But as the story develops the two families are drawn together – at first by friendship between Mary and Rachel but then more intensely.
For me one of the real strengths of this novel lies in its mature and considered treatment of Christian faith and doubt – particularly as Rachel struggles to believe in a God that would allow her child to die, a non-Christian friend points out that one cannot stop believing in a God that allows suffering when one themselves is a victim of that suffering. And as Rachel’s faith is challenged so is the atheism of Christopher and Mary.
The other is the character of Mary and the way in which the crumbling of her house literally around her cleverly mirrors the shaky foundations of Mary’s faith.
And the author also pulls the story together after a dramatic episode followed by a satisfactory but not excessively sentimental ending.
February 23, 2023
I loved Hilary Taylor’s short story – understated perfection - so I was a little nervous at seeing it extended into a full-length novel. I shouldn’t have been. Taylor is a gifted writer, incapable of putting a foot wrong, even in the shadow of dinosaurs.
'her little white foot fitting exactly into a footprint that might be a million years old'
The chapter titles hint at the poetry in prose
'Seedy fences, Padlock, Butterscotch Buns, Giraffe Pyjamas'
The opening delivers
'that ever-shifting boundary between land and ocean, that magical seam ... that smudged line, the stitching is loose…You could fall between the cracks.'
The family dynamics are beautifully sketched. Christopher is not perfect, but he’s a good man. Jamie loses his moorings, weighed down with guilt, cut adrift by his grief-stricken mother, he lashes out. Harvey the borrowed dog causes mayhem. Hannah remains perfect ‘her sunshiny smile and her dandelion clock hair… her gruff little voice and the gap in her teeth’ because she’s no longer there.
Mary refuses to face reality whether it is her failing eyesight or the slow erosion of her land by the sea. She gives poor advice to her teenage son Adam. He interprets everything literally and his point of view is one of the delights of this novel.
It’s so satisfying when the reader can see what’s coming, just a little ahead of the characters, when questions are posed and alternative answers proffered before a resolution so right you wonder that you could have considered anything else.
Beautifully written and structurally perfect, each character goes on a journey and is changed by it. I cared about every single one of them and was completely invested in each rich story.
Although this is the story of families torn apart by tragedy, Taylor writes with warmth and wit. She’s an astute observer, collecting quirks and foibles in the same way that Adam collects fossils. Sometimes we need the dark to contrast with the light: the study in grief is balanced by an exploration of kindness, of friendship, of faith, of love.
'...you cannot always see when a storm is on the way. And when one hits, and changes your life, it is impossible to see the time before as it really was. You will always view it through the prism of that event and what it has done to you. '
'her little white foot fitting exactly into a footprint that might be a million years old'
The chapter titles hint at the poetry in prose
'Seedy fences, Padlock, Butterscotch Buns, Giraffe Pyjamas'
The opening delivers
'that ever-shifting boundary between land and ocean, that magical seam ... that smudged line, the stitching is loose…You could fall between the cracks.'
The family dynamics are beautifully sketched. Christopher is not perfect, but he’s a good man. Jamie loses his moorings, weighed down with guilt, cut adrift by his grief-stricken mother, he lashes out. Harvey the borrowed dog causes mayhem. Hannah remains perfect ‘her sunshiny smile and her dandelion clock hair… her gruff little voice and the gap in her teeth’ because she’s no longer there.
Mary refuses to face reality whether it is her failing eyesight or the slow erosion of her land by the sea. She gives poor advice to her teenage son Adam. He interprets everything literally and his point of view is one of the delights of this novel.
It’s so satisfying when the reader can see what’s coming, just a little ahead of the characters, when questions are posed and alternative answers proffered before a resolution so right you wonder that you could have considered anything else.
Beautifully written and structurally perfect, each character goes on a journey and is changed by it. I cared about every single one of them and was completely invested in each rich story.
Although this is the story of families torn apart by tragedy, Taylor writes with warmth and wit. She’s an astute observer, collecting quirks and foibles in the same way that Adam collects fossils. Sometimes we need the dark to contrast with the light: the study in grief is balanced by an exploration of kindness, of friendship, of faith, of love.
'...you cannot always see when a storm is on the way. And when one hits, and changes your life, it is impossible to see the time before as it really was. You will always view it through the prism of that event and what it has done to you. '
January 14, 2023
Prepare to be curious, intrigued, hooked and finally irrevocably gripped by this belter of a first novel. It's the setting that stays with you long after you've turned the last page: the north Norfolk coast in all its stark ravaged beauty. Against this haunting backdrop a cast of delightfully original and idiosyncratic characters ricochet off each other like bumper cars. The key protagonists are Rachel, whose bedrock of faith is severely shaken by the central tragic event, and Mary, a wild and independent maverick living literally on the edge. Combine this with deft, lyrical prose and a twisting, satisfying plot, and you have a stunningly successful novel which will not disappoint.
April 5, 2023
I loved this unusual and beautiful story. Sea Defences is about faith and loss and the unlikely people and places that tether us to life and hope. As a person of faith, I could relate to the conflicted emotions Rachel experiences when her life unexpectedly falls apart. I loved the rawness and honesty with which both Rachel and Mary’s family relationships are described and found their coping mechanisms utterly believable. An occasionally uneasy but ultimately hopeful read, I found I couldn’t put it down.
With its lyrical writing, evocative setting and intriguing plot, I highly recommend this book.
With its lyrical writing, evocative setting and intriguing plot, I highly recommend this book.
February 16, 2023
This a tale in which the dangerous unpredictability of life - the fragility of family - runs parallel to that the forces of nature - sea, wind and weather - wreak on the East Coast landscape in which they live. Told with clarity, it successfully racks up the tension as to what happened to a six-year-old girl whose dead body was found on the beach. Who was responsible? How was this allowed to happen?
November 26, 2023
3.5 ⭐️
An enjoyable book covering topics of grief, faith, family dynamics, and forgiveness set in the beautiful North Norfolk coast.
What held this book back was some slightly undeveloped characters.
An enjoyable book covering topics of grief, faith, family dynamics, and forgiveness set in the beautiful North Norfolk coast.
What held this book back was some slightly undeveloped characters.
May 24, 2024
A haunting and mesmerising novel. Destroyed lives and material destruction of the landscape combine as two women are drawn together by circumstance, loss and tragedy. I could almost taste the salt in the wind, the descriptions were so vivid. A truly affecting first novel.
July 18, 2024
Oh I absolutely loved it! Kinda bleak in places but very well written (very important for me), great cast of 3 dimensional mal characters, gripping plot, a convincing and unpatronising description of a faith struggle, family drama, suspense and a satisfying finale. Highly recommend
January 12, 2023
Raw, powerful, gripping and poetic. A hell of a mystery. My heart has been ripped apart. I've cried and I've sat, wide-eyed, desperate to read every next sentence.
Massively recommended
Massively recommended
May 27, 2023
Two mothers and their families living where the land meets a very uncompromising sea that challenges and takes. Lyrical and thought-provoking.
August 28, 2023
3.5* rounded up since it’s a debut novel and the story had a lot of potential. It was held back but some undeveloped characters and maybe not enough editing at some points.
July 4, 2024
Beautifully written family drama. I particularly enjoyed the empathic portrayal of the young man with some kind of learning disability and learning about coastal erosion.
February 11, 2025
This was a very readable, though incredibly sad thriller. I found the characters a bit lacking in depth.
November 27, 2025
The story was interesting and I liked the setting; but I just couldn’t connect with the characters, something was missing.
January 10, 2023
A page-turner of a mystery with well-drawn characters and a sense of place that becomes more important as the story progresses.
May 3, 2024
I found this book via BorrowBox the digital lending side of my local Library, I am not sure what drew me to it, but I am glad that I found it.
This is a slow burner of a read that engages with the reader, keeping you turning the pages as you try to find out what has happened to the missing young daughter of the trainee vicar and what is going on with the characters as the story progresses.
The area that the story is set in, I found to be every bit as much of a character to the story as the characters themselves. I enjoyed the story and will be looking out for more books by this author in the future.
This would make a great reading group read.
This is a slow burner of a read that engages with the reader, keeping you turning the pages as you try to find out what has happened to the missing young daughter of the trainee vicar and what is going on with the characters as the story progresses.
The area that the story is set in, I found to be every bit as much of a character to the story as the characters themselves. I enjoyed the story and will be looking out for more books by this author in the future.
This would make a great reading group read.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews