Correspondence

My first novel, Correspondence, was published in 1992 by The Women’s Press (UK) and in 1993 by Overlook (USA). It was republished by the SF Gateway in June 2019. Buy here.

Correspondence was short-listed for the Arthur C Clarke Award 1993; The James Tiptree Jnr Award 1993; The Heinemann Fiction Award, and received a 1993 Encouragement Award from the European Science Fiction Society.

As a bit of personal background, I started writing Correspondence in 1988 after graduating as a mature student. At that time, I was a single parent with two young daughters and I had a number of different part-time teaching jobs, so it was pretty hard to find time to write. Much of the book was written at night after the kids had gone to bed, which was the only time I could really focus. I’d never written a novel before and had no clue how to do it – I didn’t even know how long a novel should be. When I got to 20,000 words I thought that must be it, and was horrified to discover I had to aim for 60,000 at the very least! Although I was terrified to be actually writing a novel, I found the whole experience hugely energising, and I’m so glad I overcome the idea that people like me can’t write books. If you’re interested in the influences and thinking behind the book, please check out my PhD thesis A Journey of Integration. Here are a few reviews from 1992/3.