5 metres 80 -

(Sorry it underlaps the side box at first, but as soon as you press play, it overlaps and all's well.)

Could I BE more pleased?

From a fabulous review of Silver Skin here on The Bookbag site, I give you Jill Murphy's verdict -

Hooray! I've been thirsting for something a little bit different and I found it in Silver Skin. This story mixes sci-fi and historical fiction to spectacular effect. How would a person from a highly technological future cope in the Neolithic world? Could the vast differences in experience, culture and understanding ever be transcended? Could worthwhile relationships be made? Lennon explores these questions in typically lyrical form. I love the way she describes both landscapes and people and the emotions they feel. Both Rab and Cait are utterly credible characters and it's both fascinating and moving to watch them inch towards a friendship despite the vast gulf between them.

The picture of a technological future in which artificial intelligences support and guide human beings, in which races have blended and in which space is the premium currency, is a picture I can believe in. But I think the picture of Neolithic society has the bigger emotional pull. The remains of Skara Brae form Europe's most complete uncovered Neolithic settlement. What was life like there? How did its people see themselves? How did they survive? Lennon presents an entrancing picture of a hard life but one rich with meaning. The story is set in the weeks leading up to the end of its occupation. What happened? Did Skara Brae's people abandon it? Was there an extreme weather event? We don't know for sure, but Lennon gives us a credible interpretation.

It's original. It's interesting. It's imaginative. It's beautifully written. The plot is compelling. And it mixes science and the supernatural to great effect. I really liked Silver Skin. Can you tell?!

Highly recommended.

Could I be more pleased?  NO!

Update and an Urging to Patience

It's not a big deal, but you will have to wait a little longer to get your hands on Silver Skin - now due out 16 June.  To help you contain yourselves in patience, here are the latest tweaks to the cover to look at -

Pretty fabulous, yes?

Today I'm over on An Awfully Big Blog Adventure sharing a poem by the wonderfully-named (and gorgeously-voiced) Scroobius Pip on his love of libraries, and earlier in the month I posted a short review of Caroline Wickham-Jones' Orkney: A Historical Guide on The History Girls blog.

Cannon Street Railway Bridge

five rows of pillars

divide the brown Thames,

channel the blue-and-white

back-and-forth boats,

bear the tracks,

the traffic and racket of trains

each pillar is fluted

like Doric chiton -

each thick

as Atlas’ thigh -

each colour-corroded,

banded with the tides’ levels

gulls float past them

(backwards)

unconcerned -

cormorants duck-dive

into the murk between their feet

capitaled by concrete utility,

bracketed by Drake’s Gold Hind

and Southwark’s cheerful filigree,

five rows of pillars

divide the brown Thames

Two Girls and a Bridge

While I was away in London, I was working, yes, but I was also ever-so-slightly obsessed.  With two cats and the Cannon Street Railway Bridge.

The cats found their way into the words in the shape of a space tiger, and I wrote a poem to the bridge - I'll put that up tomorrow - 

Plaster and String at Tate Britain

This post is one I made earlier, as I'm a Happy London Cat-Sitter/Retreated Writer just now and not at my computer.  A little Henry Moore to enhance your day, from my last visit to Tate Britain - Reclining Figure, 1951, made of plaster and string.  Fabulous.

(I've tried writing in this position but without success.)