Station Zero

  Many place-names in the Autumn Isles reference Saint Chyan, the 9th Century missionary who introduced Christianity to the islands. (Sundown Watch, where Utterly Dark lives, stands upon a cliff called Saint Chyan’s Head.) In an early version of the third Utterly Dark book, Utterly Dark and the Tides of Time I went into a bit more detail about who Saint Chyan was, and the truth behind his legend. His story didn't make it into the finished book, but it's part of the history of the Autumn Isles. Maybe it will come in useful one day. The Utterly Trilogy is available now from UK bookshops. Saint Chyan and the Lady of the Deep Of all the monks at his abbey, Brother Chyan was the laziest, and the least devoted. That was how he had come to be dozing by the river on the day the Northmen came. It was a sunny morning in the September of the year 834, and he should have been about his chores in the kitchen garden, but digging bean-rows was hard, and the green shade beneath the willows h...

Utterly Dark and the Tides of Time will be out soon. I linked in an earlier post to this review by Gordon Askew on his blog Magic Fiction Since Potter , who thinks, ‘ this concluding title of the trilogy   is the richest and most complex of the three. A thrilling triumph, it  lifts the whole story onto another level, into (literally) another dimension, and firmly into the realm of great children’s fantasies .’ If you haven’t yet dipped a toe into Utterly’s world, maybe this review from Veronica Price on her A View From The Bookshelves will help to persuade you to try Utterly Dark and Face of the Deep and the second book, Utterly Dark and the Heart of the Wild . I think the three Utterly books are among the best things I’ve done. But, whether because of the historical setting, or COVID, or the fact that the main character is younger than most of previous heroes and heroines, it’s been very hard to make people realise they exist - so if you have read and enjoyed th...

  Utterly Dark and the Tides of Time is on its way! The third book in the Utterly Dark trilogy begins on Utterly’s home island of Wildsea, in the spring of 1812. It begins with her keeping the promise she made in Utterly Dark and the Heart of the Wild to rejoin the Gorm in the depths of the sea. But the Gorm’s power extends not just throughout the oceans but through time too, and pretty soon Utterly finds herself in trouble in the strange, futuristic Wildsea of the year 1971. Meanwhile, back in the Regency era, her friends have troubles of their own. Cover art and interior illustrations are by Paddy Donnelly, and the book will be published in September. But it’s available for pre-order now, online or from you local bookshop. Please pre-order if you can: plenty of advance sales and sales in the week of publication make a big difference to a book’s chances. And please pick up Utterly Dark and the Face of the Deep and Utterly Dark and the Heart of the Wild if you haven’t already. The...

Utterly Dark and the Heart of the Wild is one of my spookiest efforts, so here for Hallowe'en is a little excerpt, featuring one of the supernatural denizens of the Vale of Barrowchurch.    I’ve borrowed two pictures to illustrate it. The green lady above is by the brilliant Iris Compiet, from her book Faeries of the Faultlines, which features a host of eerie and unsettling beings. The one below is one of Brian Froud’s paintings from his 1979 book Faeries , with Alan Lee, which partly inspired the river girl and much else in Utterly’s world.  In the story, Utterly and her Uncle Will are visiting Barrowchurch as guests of his cousin Francis. Utterly's friend Egg has gone with them, and is posing as their servant... *  *  * Egg had been exploring too, although he had no guide except his own curiosity. It had led him first to the kitchen garden, and then into the large fruit-cages there, where he ate a large number of ripe strawberries and raspberries before...

The second Utterly Dark book, Utterly Dark and the Heart of the Wild , is published in the UK today! Here’s the magnificent cover illustration by Paddy Donnelly. As you can probably tell from Paddy’s artwork, this book isn’t concerned so much with the sea, which is what the first one was all about. This time, just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, it is …  But on dry land, magical trouble is lurking.  As usual I hadn’t planned on writing a series, and it was only when Utterly Dark and the Face of the Deep was done and dusted that I started wondering if she could have more adventures. I wanted to know a bit more about Egg, so he gets more to do in this book, and there’s more of Will and Aish too. I grew very fond of all those characters while I was writing the first book, and I’d have been quite happy writing a sequel in which they just sat around and talked and went for walks on the beach, but I guess readers prefer it if something happens too, so I’ve thro...