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Showing posts from October, 2015

Country Life

My new novel Country Life (not so new in that it was started 15-20 years ago, abandoned, then totally reconstructed two or three years ago) will come out from Unthank Books at the beginning of November. I have just seen the proof copy and it looks good. Here's the beginning: 1 light cones Further along the coast, some of the houses have been abandoned. Water has ruined them, their windows are broken, and from their shard-filled spaces dankness emanates; small animals freely go in and out. Once, it’s said, more than a thousand years ago, a whole town slipped into the sea right here, and furthermore they say you can even now hear its sounds on a still night. The tolling of bells, a sad sound because of the overtones it lacks, and even sadder still the cries of traders over their lost livelihoods, over undulating kelp. Now there are rumours of heavy water; there is cooling. Whatever it is, that’s what they say. Whoever they are. And over the weight of that sea, over dead th