SANDLANDS - Softcover

Thornton, Rosy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 191098504X ISBN 13: 9781910985045

Publisher: Sandstone Press, 2016

Synopsis

LONGLISTED FOR THE EDGEHILL SHORT STORY PRIZE 2017

LONGLISTED FOR THE NEW ANGLE PRIZE 2017

From the white doe appearing through the dark wood to the blue-winged butterflies rising in a cloud as a poignant symbol of happier times, the creatures of the Suffolk landscape move through Rosy Thornton s delicate and magical collection of stories. The enigmatic Mr Napish is feeding a fox rescued from the floods; an owl has been guarding a cache of long-lost letters; a nightingale s song echoes the sound of a loved voice; in a Martello tower on a deserted shore Dr Whybrow listens to ghostly whispers. Through the landscape and its creatures, the past is linked to the present, and generations of lives are intertwined.

About this title

Review

'A writer with extraordinary range.'-Jenn Ashworth
'Evocative and sure footed.'-Emma Darwin
'Sandlands is an apt title for this elegant collection of stories. Just as the sand slips around and is fragile and delicate, these stories slip from era to era and place to place.' -Ann Cater, Random Things Through My Letterbox
'When a collection - and the individual stories within it - moves you as deeply as this did, you know you've come across something really rather special. Maybe you don't usually read short stories either. But please, try this collection. You might just love it as much as I did.'-Anne Williams, Being Anne
'I wasn't expecting the wonderful poetic quality of the writing. It put me in mind of Seamus Heaney at his very best. There's a preternatural undercurrent that weaves its spell throughout so that I found the writing mesmerising.'-Linda Hill, Linda's Book Bag
'Although the book is set in Suffolk, the descriptions are so vivid that you do not have to be familiar with the area to enjoy these stories. For a book group I think there would be a lot to discuss as the author has skilfully woven the stories through time.' -Carolyn Fraser, Nudge Books
'The various elements of the book characters, setting, language, and even the names and title come together so well. Do read this even if like me you dont like short stories. I am happy to be a convert! 5/5.' --Dorothy Anderson, Nudge Books

'Imagine writing that mixes Susan Hill and Gavin Maxwell with a hint of Edgar Allen Poe and you'll be on the right track. This is an outstanding collection of stories from a woman who is clearly a master of the form. If Rosy Thornton doesn't win some major literary prize very soon, I'll be very surprised.'-Colin Garrow
'A gem of a book with story hooks as strong as the claws of the owl on the arresting front cover. Brilliant.'-Laura Wilkinson
'Each story contains little jewels in its own right as well as forming part of a cohesive collection.'-Helen Walters, Fiction is Stranger Than Fact
'A beautiful collection of short stories that held me spellbound from start to finish.'-Margaret Freeman, Books Please
'Descriptive prose is Thornton's strength, her wordage as apt as the characters... portrayed, effective and poignant. There are natural; twitches in narrative flow, a distinctive method of keeping the reader's mind engaged and making a short story appear less diminutive... This is a book to pick up, to read a story and re-boot the brain... at the back of her storytelling there s a sense of steel, of purpose.' --Kent Life

Rosy Thornton's impressive new volume of stories, Sandlands, share many common elements. Place is the most obvious as all the stories are set in the Suffolk fenlands & often share the same locations - the Ship Inn, Willett's Farm, a WWII airfield now turned into a museum, the village of Blaxhall. There are also common themes - nature, remembrance, the past reaching into the present.'-Lyn Baines, Prefer Reading
'What I liked particularly was the feeling of history: an ancient landscape with Anglo Saxons under your feet; pagan rituals mixed up with the Christian calendar; the past and present coexisting. There s a hint of the supernatural, too, which somehow seems appropriate to the place.'-Call Me Madam
'The stories here cover all sorts of subjects, from the trivial to the sublime, and they re all subtly linked together by the landscape.' --Social Bookshelves

About the Author

Rosy Thornton is a Fellow and Tutor of Emmanuel College, Cambridge and a lecturer in Law at the University of Cambridge, with specialisms in housing law, charitable trusts and feminist legal studies. She has published five novels, including NINEPINS (Sandstone Press, 2012) and this is her first short story collection. She divides her time between Cambridge and the Suffolk sandlings.

Edition details

• Publisher: Sandstone Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 191098504X
• ISBN 13: 9781910985045
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 272