Woodcock

Richard Smyth is a Yorkshire-based author and freelance writer. He has written several nonfiction books and written features, reviews, and comment pieces for publications including The Guardian, Times LiterarySupplement, New Statesman, and BirdWatching. He is also a compiler of crosswords for New Scientist, History Today, BBC Wildlife, History Revealed, and a question setter for BBC Mastermind.

'A novel of shifting, silted landscapes and relationships laid bare, with quiet urgency The Woodcock reveals the complexities of desire, instinct and faith' –Eley Williams, author of The Liar's Dictionary'Beautifully written - I could almost taste the salt' –Carys Bray, author of A Song for Issy Bradley'An astonishing piece of literary ventriloquism - Smyth revisits the period novel with a contemporary sensibility and an incredible sense of place' –Owen Booth, author of The All True Adventures (And Rare Education) of The Daredevil Daniel Bones'This is a funny and thoughtful novel. Sardonic sometimes, mordant at others, it is always witty, fast, and smart' –Tim Dee, author of Greenery'Observing the consequences of the arrival of strangers through the salty prism of a small, northern English coastal town, Smyth has a naturalist's eye for detail, and turns it here upon human nature. The Woodcock is beautiful and unsettling in equal measure' –Jon Dunn, author of Orchid Summer'The world Smyth evokes with his vibrant prose leaps off the page - every character lives and breathes, and beneath its ordinary surface, 1920s Gravely teems with beauty, complexity and mystery' –Jenn Ashworth, author of Fell'Compelling' –Eithne Farry, Daily Mail'Accomplished' -iPaper'Smyth's evocation of place and nature [...] is imbued with a compelling sense of closely observed realism' –Alexander Larman, Literary Review'The bleakness of the coast, the mist, the shifting nature of the sands all speak of contingency, brutality, deception. [...] The period detail and the sensibilities and prejudices of the time are portrayed with great deftness' –Alice Jolly, TLS