Novels about tidal country,
and the people who stay

No, and I want to be straight about why rather than leave you hoping. I am not able to read unpublished work — partly time, mostly because it creates a legal tangle if I later write something adjacent. The Society of Authors and your nearest writing centre both run paid assessment schemes with people who do this properly.

Often, yes. I do roughly one video call a month with book clubs reading any of the four books, and they are free. There is a queue of a few months. Write to me directly rather than to the publisher and tell me which book and roughly when.

Cobbold & Wren in Chester hold signed and dated first editions of The Salt Line and post worldwide. I sign for them every few weeks rather than in one batch, so if they are out of stock it is worth checking again. I do not sell books from this site.

Yes. Schools go through Tomás at Harrowgate and are usually paid at the Society of Authors rate. Libraries are different — I keep a handful of unpaid library dates each year, and I give them to places off the usual festival routes first.

Marguerite Bell at Pike & Quill handles all rights outside the UK and Commonwealth, including film and television. Please do not send rights enquiries to me or to the publicity address; they will only be forwarded and it wastes a week.

I am about a third of the way into something set on the same estuary about sixty years earlier. I have learned not to give a date. The newsletter is where it will be announced first, and I only send it when there is something to say.