Only the Ocean

I was absolutely cheering on Kel and Rose by the end of their stormy salt water odyssey! Wonderful, mesmerising, immersive story telling * Hilary McKay, author of The Skylarks' War * I loved Only the Ocean. It's about a girl who is trying to escape from a dreadful life and an entire deck of cards stacked against her. It's about a girl whose idea of escape and what it could look like has been severely limited by that dreadful life. It's about a dawning sexuality overcoming past trauma and it's about the new, hitherto unimagined, escape routes that love can bring. This all comes wrapped up in Carthew's singular and poetic style, awareness of nature and use of dialect. I thought it was wild and raw and truly, truly beautiful. * Jill Murphy, The Bookbag * Steering clear of well-worn clichs, Carthews stories cut to the heart of human experience, often portraying and championing lifes underdogs and outsiders. What a thrilling, thought-provoking novel this is, brimming with perilous encounters, and the rawness of real-life relationships * LoveReading4Kids * An intriguing LGBTQ story about survival and fortitude, with a fierce protagonist at its heart * Culturefly * A heart-rending quest story about children in a bitterly cold, climate-changed Cornwall, searching for the everyday comforts and love of the world so recently lost * Independent - Praise for WINTER DAMAGE * Gripping stuff, Carthews prose has a startling ferocity * The Telegraph Best Books of 2015 - Praise for THE LIGHT THAT GETS LOST * A vivid, imagistic language * Financial Times - Praise for THE LIGHT THAT GETS LOST *

Carthew is a working-class country writer from Cornwall, where she lives with her girlfriend. She has written all her books outside, either in the fields and woodland that surround her home or in the cabin that she built from scrap wood. She has written two books of poetry, as well as three novels for young adults, Winter Damage, The Light That Gets Lost and Only the Ocean, all for Bloomsbury. Her first novel for adults, All Rivers Run Free, is published by riverrun/ Quercus. Natasha has written for many publications on the subject of wild writing, including the Writers & Artists Yearbook, Eco-fiction, TripFiction, the Guardian, the Big Issue and the Dark Mountain Project. Shes currently writing her second literary novel for adults and a new collection of rural poetry.