Doggerland

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It is clear that author Ben Smith set out to create a circular narrative – with the idea that, despite change, things will always revert to the way they were in time – and he has been successful in this aim. The pilot – in the role of not-quite-stranger coming to town – provides a narrative impetus with a revelation that spikes Jem’s interest in what happened to his father.

The Boy fishes with a makeshift line that catches only floating plastic and old boots and throws himself with professional pride into the hopeless task of maintaining the dwindling field of still functional wind turbines. Soon, stone circles echoed once more with the chanting of ancient rituals and menhirs were again bedecked with wildflowers and presented with offerings of honey and blood. So Smith’s compelling central narrative of the relationship between the Boy and the Old Man, mediated by a few interventions and asides from the Pilot, depicts a future ruined by corporate control, rising sea levels, plastic pollution and trade which prioritises greed over need. The comparisons to The Road are spot-on; this future is bleak and narrow in the way th world can be seen by the protagonists.Salt water rusts all the metal it comes into contact with, meaning a losing battle to keep the facility in any kind of repair.

For instance, we are told that the Boy was sent on the rig to replace his father, after the latter’s unsuccessful escape attempt. In the North Sea, far from what remains of the coastline, a wind farm stretches for thousands of acres. It took me a little while before I started to enjoy Doggerland – was the most exciting moment really going to be when the boy found a shoe in his fishing net? Just, perhaps, a slight adjustment in direction and flow as the wave bends, folds, then passes on, leaving behind nothing but open sea.It was in fact through his poetry that I discovered Smith, via Nature Matters 2018, the annual New Networks for Nature conference. There are allusions to exactly how the world has ended up the way it has, but little in the way of real concrete conclusions.

Jeff Noon and Steve Beard combine their powers to tell the story of an otherworldly London and its waterways in Gogmagog. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This popular-science book tells the story of one of the most important, but least known major archaeological sites in Europe: Doggerland.The Road meets Waiting for Godot: powerful, unforgettable, unique’ Melissa Harrison, author of At Hawthorn Time. The news sends shockwaves through the tight-knit island community, and with no leads and no obvious motive for the murder, Karen struggles to find the killer in a race against time. Sentences are frequently curt, communicating only what they need to, but there are moments of levity too, most of which come from the old man’s ornery attitude towards the owner of the supply boat.

Although they know each other’s names, they rarely use them; who else would they be speaking to, after all? Nothing goes unnoticed in the tight-knit community - certainly not the arrival, or disappearance, of a world-famous singer. As the plot is teased out, the boy makes discoveries that could shake the rig to its foundations, resulting in plenty of moments of tension as he tries to conduct his investigations covertly. The cast – two grizzled and taciturn maintenance men, one older (“the old man”) and one not so old (“the boy”, though he’s not actually a boy).On our site, you can find not only book reviews but author interviews, cover reveals, excerpts from books, acquisition announcements, guest posts by your favourite authors, and so much more. As an academic, he specialises in environmental literature focusing particularly on oceans, waste and the ‘Anthropocene’, relating to human impact on geology.