Ben Tufnell – författare

'Brilliant: singular, unsettling and mutative' ROSIE ANDREWS, author of THE LEVIATHAN'The strange events of this story have haunted me' NAOMI BOOTH'A beautiful, moving, unexpected novel . . . I will carry it with me for a long time' ELVIA WILK'A queer, oneiric, watery fable in which narrative form and logic are in constant flux' TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENTYou don't pass through the North Shore on the way to anywhere else: it is the end of the road. The village was like many along that wild coast; inhabited by those who had always lived there, and always would.The residents know nature's tempestuous ways. They batten down the hatches when the storms rip through, and they clear the debris together in the aftermath.But the morning after one particularly ferocious storm, something is washed up on the beach that has never appeared before. Something that opens the question of what nature, and the North Shore, are truly capable of.The North Shore is both a powerful story of transformation and a coming-of-age tale. It speaks of the mysteries that lie between the land and the water and the ways in which we use myths and folklore to understand the strangeness of the world.

'Brilliant: singular, unsettling and mutative' ROSIE ANDREWS, author of THE LEVIATHAN'The strange events of this story have haunted me' NAOMI BOOTH'A beautiful, moving, unexpected novel . . . I will carry it with me for a long time' ELVIA WILK'A queer, oneiric, watery fable in which narrative form and logic are in constant flux' TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENTYou don't pass through the North Shore on the way to anywhere else: it is the end of the road. The village was like many along that wild coast; inhabited by those who had always lived there, and always would.The residents know nature's tempestuous ways. They batten down the hatches when the storms rip through, and they clear the debris together in the aftermath. But the morning after one particularly ferocious storm, something is washed up on the beach that has never appeared before. Something that opens the question of what nature, and the North Shore, are truly capable of.The North Shore is both a powerful story of transformation and a coming-of-age tale. It speaks of the mysteries that lie between the land and the water and the ways in which we use myths and folklore to understand the strangeness of the world.

An attempt to melt an iceberg with a blowtorch, an indoor lake of tequila, an ascent of Mt Everest, driftwood burnt with sunlight focused through a magnifying glass and a doorbell that emits the sound of a dying star; these are some of the extraordinary artistic strategies covered in this collection. Gathering together texts published since 2002, as well as specially written new essays, In Land traces recent engagements with landscape, nature, environment and the cosmos.

A world on the brink of collapse. Dense woods, mountains, a standing stone, a barrow, and a very old house. But if you’ve only ever known concrete and glass, how do you live in a place like this? Recruited by a mysterious organisation, Nash thinks things are finally going his way. But when a job goes badly wrong, he is taken to an isolated location to await a decision on his fate.Paradise is a crumbling cottage deep in a forest; Nash is free to leave the house but must not leave the woods. It is winter, and this wild and remote place is unknowable and terrifying. He attempts to map his surroundings to find a way out, but they resist him, the land seemingly shifting and changing. Moreover, he begins to suspect that his employers’ intentions may be much darker than anticipated.Forming an unlikely friendship, Nash finally begins to understand the consoling power of the place that has become his home. Brigid is sure of herself and at home in the natural world, while he is urban, lost. But she longs for his world, and he longs for hers.Now the wheel of the year is turning. As winter gives way to spring Nash’s fate has been decided, and they are coming to deliver their verdict…Paradise is the brilliant new novel from Ben Tufnell, an uncategorizable Kafkaesque eco-thriller combining elements of noir, folk horror and nature writing, addressing the most urgent of contemporary issues.