Huge thanks are due to my family, for all the times I didn’t make sandcastles, watch Bake Off or play Catan during the course of several years’ worth of summer holidays and days off. As well as generously allowing me time to write they have enthusiastically shared in the journey from beginning to end. Thanks to Lachlan for unwavering interest and support, from that very first day, when – camping on the shores of lake Windermere – we gazed up at sunlit fell tops and a story was born, to the moment we rounded a bend in the river in our kayaks and knew at last where Tom Hopkins lived. Enormous thanks are due to Chloe, my first and most forthright editor, whose acute sense of story saved early drafts from a number of nosedives, and without whose wisdom the novel may never have found its wings. Lucy has been my most enthusiastic reader, and her beautiful, unfailing belief has been rocket fuel for late-night writing shifts. It has also been a joy to share the journey with Esme and Jack, who have patiently walked and talked their way around Spylark’s ‘ three peaks’ with me, revelling in the setting, as we discussed the latest plot point. Lastly, as with pretty much everything I attempt to do that is any good, most of the credit should really go to Emma, my wife, who keeps my feet on the ground, while also pointing my eyes upwards. With her, every day is an adventure, as we play our small part together in telling the greatest story of all.
Finally, a word about the setting. Just as most of the technology featured in the book already exists (or soon will), so the world captured by Tom’s eye-in-the-sky is the real world of the beautiful English Lake District, including the three peaks, the aqueduct and all the bays and islands of the lake itself. To find out about these places, and more, see my website, www.dannyrurlander.com.
TRY ANOTHER GREAT BOOK FROM CHICKEN HOUSE
BELOW ZERO by DAN SMITH
When Zak’s plane crash-lands on Outpost Zero, a small Antarctic research base in one of the most isolated places on Earth, he discovers a cold, dark nightmare. The power’s out and the people who live there have disappeared. Worse, as he searches for answers, bizarre visions suggest a link to something else – deep beneath the ice – which only he can understand . . .
Paperback, ISBN 978-1-910655-92-4, £6.99 • ebook, ISBN 978-1-911077-55-8, £6.99
TRY ANOTHER GREAT BOOK FROM CHICKEN HOUSE
THE RISE OF WOLVES by KERR THOMSON
Innis Munro is walking home across the bleak wilderness of Nin Island when he hears the chilling howl of a wolf. But there are no wolves on the island – not since they were hunted to extinction, centuries ago. As long-buried secrets resurface, Innis’s adventure truly begins . . .
Thomson’s ambitious plot, tight, poetic prose and feel for history is a breath of island air.
THE TIMES ON THE SOUND OF WHALES
Paperback, ISBN 978-1-911077-69-5, £6.99 • ebook, 978-1-911077-99-2, £6.99
Text © Danny Rurlander 2019
Cover illustration © Doaly 2019
First paperback edition published in Great Britain in 2019
This electronic edition published in 2019
Chicken House
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Danny Rurlander has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved.
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eBook produced by ePub KNOWHOW
Cover design and interior design by Steve Wells
Cover illustration by Doaly
Map by Finn Sorsbie
British Library Cataloguing in Publication data available.
PB ISBN 978-1-911490-70-8
eISBN 978-1-912626-40-3
Spylark Page 20
