Publication day

Marking a moment that matters

Hello. How are you doing?

This is just a short message to let you know that it’s publication day for The Given World today. I’ve been living with the Welm Valley, Lower Eodham and its many and varied inhabitants for so many years now, and it feels very strange (though very necessary) to let the world I’ve created go out into the real world at last, and find itself a home.

You can buy The Given World from all the usual places, though I would encourage you to visit your local bricks-and-mortar independent bookshop if you can; many of them will have signed copies in stock, too. You can also order it from Bookshop.org, which supports indies, or you might want to buy the audiobook instead, which is read by the brilliant Alex Jennings and is on Audible, Google Play, AND is included free with Spotify Premium. And did you know that authors get paid when you borrow books from libraries? So many choices!

There’s a short extract of the book on the wonderful Caught By The River website, where it is the Book of the Month for May. You can find the Guardian’s review here, and an archived (non-paywalled) version of the FT’s here. There’s an interview with me in The Observer here.

I talked about the books I loved as a child, and the state of my TBR pile, in Mathew Lyons’ The Broken Compass Substack. You can find that here. And my friend Josie asked me three excellent questions for her Substack What Is Here?, which you can find, well, here. I wrote a piece about my funny little cottage for Harper’s Bazaar, which isn’t online but I can show you, below.

I’ve got a lot of events coming up, and I’d be delighted to see you at any of them. We are in the process of adding a couple more dates, but please accept my apologies if I’m not currently scheduled to visit your area. As a very anxious driver I’m doing all the travel by train, which from Suffolk mostly means going in to London (two hours) and then back out again from there: it’s fun, but a bit gruelling (especially when there are delays). Plus, it might be that no bookshops in your area have invited me!

Thank you so much for all your support here on Substack, and in the real word beyond this newsletter. I’m so lucky to have found people who get what I’m trying to do, and who are willing to cheer me on. You’re all such wonders, and I’m so grateful.

With love,