About this book
Combining a poet’s gift for language with a keen naturalist’s eye, Avril Joy takes her readers on journeys across landscapes from Venice to the East Anglian Fens, from Cape Cod to the shore temples of Mahabalipuram. Moving and poignant, told with an unerring compassion, the characters are both vulnerable and strong in adversity. Avril Joy explores first love, families, marriage, childhood, mothering, social class, escape, gardens, birds, seas, tides and stray dogs. These are stories about the wild places we call home.
About the author
Before becoming a full-time writer, Avril Joy worked for twenty-five years in Low Newton women’s prison in County Durham. Her short fiction has appeared in literary magazines and anthologies, including Victoria Hislop’s, The Story: Love, Loss & the Lives of Women. Award listings include the Bridport, the Manchester Prize for Fiction, the Fish Short Memoir, and the Raymond Carver Prize. Millie and Bird won the inaugural Costa Short Story Award, 2012. Sometimes a River Song won the 2017 People’s Book Prize for
outstanding achievement. Her poetry has appeared in print and online. Skomm won the York Literary Festival poetry competition, 2019. Avril lives with her partner near Bishop Auckland, in County Durham and posts regularly at www.avriljoy.com
