2026 in preview

Happy new year! (What’s the cut-off point for saying this to people you haven’t seen since the 31st of December? March? April?)

2025 was a year of beginnings for me; publishing my first novel, seeing it reasonably well-reviewed, getting a couple of short- and long-listings in awards, and generally feeling that it wasn’t a complete disaster (which is the most I was hoping for). 2026 should hopefully build on that, when my second novel is published in April. Night Fire is a psychological/historical ghost story, set in and around a Bomber Command airfield in Lincoln during the Second World War. It’s about war, trauma, grief, redemption, sacrifice - all that cheerful, page-turning stuff. When I’m feeling confident I think it’s the strongest thing I’ve ever written, but that doesn’t make me any less anxious for its reception. As long as it actually gets a reception and doesn’t sink like a stone, I’ll be happy.

I also plan to start another novel in the spring/summer, which I’m keeping under wraps for the moment. Other than that, I’m tinkering away on a short story collection, indulging my new obsession with Bob Dylan, and trying to deal with the insidious Edinburgh cold. This city seems to experience particulary dank winters, made worse by living in an old, badly-insulated Victorian tenement that should have been pulled down in the 1920s. It’s not a dry, crisp season, but something submerged and clammy, and it gets deep into the bones.

For Substack, I have a couple of essays lined up, which I’ll publish over the next month or so. I’ve also got my hands on the proof of the new Gwendoline Riley novel, The Palm House, which I cannot wait to read. It’s published in March, so I’ll aim to get a review up here. I also want to read/review Melissa Harrison’s new novel, The Given World, published in May. Riley and Harrison are two of my favourite contemporary writers, criminally underlooked in the bullshit rodeo of literary awards and prizes.