Friday, 10 October 2025

Body and Soul

My sixth novel, "Body and Soul", is published today via Elsewhen Press, an excellent independent publisher who have been great to work with and who I heartily recommend!

"Body and Soul" developed out of a simple idea which I realised would work well at novel length and which I wanted to write with a kind of old-style SF sensibility, whilst also ensuring it dealt with modern themes. I'm very pleased with the book, which sports stunning cover art from Alex Storer who perfectly matched and executed the brief.


Probably the best way to describe the concept is to quote the blurb on the back cover:


COME TOGETHER IN BODY AND SOUL

When a pregnancy occurs on Heart it is two-fold. The woman carries the body and the man carries the soul. Both have to be present at birth for the soul to enter the body, otherwise the body is born useless and the soul is left to dissipate.

Heart is a planet recovering from an unexplained catastrophe which occurred so long ago that the inhabitants are entirely unaware of their history. Most live in isolated settlements that are self-sufficient, thinly populated, and generally happy; their only source of outside information limited to encounters with travellers, lone nomads who have chosen a life of hardship in order to find artefacts, tell stories, and gain wider experiences. Following an encounter with one such nomad, Calvin, a boy on the verge of puberty, harbours a secret desire to travel; but it will take an unexpected act of violence to encourage him to leave everyone he knows and to strike out on his own.

What he discovers is not only unexpected, but will shock him to his core.


Whilst there are no reviews as yet, it has been described as spiritual dystopian fantasy SF which, if you know my predilection for genre-bending, will come as no surprise. Levity aside, the novel explores themes of identity, gender-roles, isolation and love.

Published in both e-book and paperback from the usual outlets, purchase information can be found here on the Elsewhen Press website.





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