You worked on an early version of your debut novel Not Alone during our Writing Your Novel course in 2017, how did your time on the course impact your approach to writing? This was interesting in concept, and I enjoyed the dynamic between her and her partner. I wanted to know more about the microplastic storm, have it connect more firmly with what we're currently experiencing. And Katie was an overachiever, really trying to do her best to make a difference for the environment and climate.

Outside their safe haven, Katie and Harry encounter a world that is forever changed. There are new threats to their safety here, fellow survivors who are determined to start a new population, to save the world they so desperately misunderstood. Katie is pushed to unimaginable lengths as she pushes ahead in search of a better life and as Harry's safety wavers in the balance. As they travel further north, leaving their once safe haven so far behind them, Katie knows how much harder it will be to return if things go wrong. Intensely moving, genuinely gripping, plausible and absorbing; this is a stunningly debut by a truly talented new writer.” I’m writing something new, which is a delicious and freeing feeling, and enjoying writing for publicity and marketing too about Not Alone, writing, ecology and environmental issues. At the moment, the new novel is a dystopia where extreme environmental revolution has allowed nature to recover, but people live in walled towns, the wild so sacred they are cut off from it, their own natures too – emotion a dangerous brutality of the past. It’s about greenwashing, censorship, human beings split off from nature, and finding hope, truth and connection. The world outside is full of terror for the isolated Harry, and for his mother, who knows that only with persistence care can they avoid death.It's been a while since I read a book and genuinely hated every single character in it, but this one accomplished that easily. Not Alone is the story of the harrowing journey of a mother and son, fighting for survival and a future, in a world ravaged by environmental disaster. ⁣ I love wild places and was inspired by all the adventures I’ve had in my job and also for fun – kayaking up rivers and across lakes, seeing a mountainside spread out from the highest peak, squelching through bog and peat. I wanted the characters to go on an adventure. Whilst Not Alone is grounded science fiction, I have loved fantasy and science fiction, adventures in imaginative worlds with a hint of magic, and grew up loving the likes of Garth Nix, Philip Pullman, Ian Irvine, Robin Hobb… Harry’s love of dragons and make believe, things that sparkle, and having a curiosity about the world feels precious and hopeful in a world Katie sees as dangerous and not how things should be at all. Practically everyone she meets on her travels is male and they're all stereotypical misogynistic creeps with basically recycled lines who harass her and are uniformly one-dimensional. Even when the author is obviously trying to add more complexity to them, like giving one of them a kid, it comes off false. Yes, it’s a bleak story. And it’s harrowing and heartbreaking. But there’s also a sense of adventure to it, as well as love throughout it and hope at the end of it.

Five years ago, a microplastic storm wiped out most of the population. No infrastructure. No safe havens. No goodbyes. In Hitchin, some years after the storm, Katie lives in her flat with her four-year old son Harry. The windows are gaffer-taped, and the air-vent's covered with a filter. She only goes out foraging when the wind is low, and always with a face-mask handy and a particle meter.Because I need to keep you safe!” I snap. I strip off my overalls and boots, hands still trembling, hanging them on the hook outside our front door. It’s journey of survival, and also an eventual physical journey that will make your heart pound and your pulse race. And although it feels as if there’s nothing left to live for and your heart may shatter a bit along the way - there’s still so much hope for a better kinder future for these characters. As well as desperate call for change in the world we live in, and how these threats are definitely not fictional.⁣

And it is not just the micro-particles with which she has to contend, there are also a very few survivors too, many of whom are desperate.

Featured Reviews

I appreciate that at first it felt like a love story of a mother's sacrifice for her sons survival and the bond they share,, but I also felt like it was also as much as a story about Katie making this journey to save herself as well. Difficult decisions are made throughout the book, and protection at all cost is the main goal for survival with these two and the cast of characters met along the way. The book’s horror hinges on the fact that with few women left in the world many men are rapists. And hey, I’ve read my fair share of feminist revenge stories, but the number of times this book attempts to drive that point home it just became one dimensional in nature. I have to add, Harry makes Cailou look like a saint. He is the most annoying, whiney child in the universe. I couldn't handle anytime he spoke. He was afraid of his own shadow, whined about everything did stupid things, and just all around was not a charming and endearing child. Intensely moving, genuinely gripping, plausible and absorbing; this is a stunning debut by a truly talented new writer." I enjoyed the parts where other characters entered, as this seemed to push the story forward and provide something different within the narrative. Towards the end, I was feeling an impatience to reach their final destination and find out if Katie’s fiancé was alive after all, but once I reached the end, it all felt worth it.