Some exciting news for Diana Powell; her novel, Things Found On The Mountain, will be published by Seren Books on May 22nd.

Seren describe the novel as a “Hardyesque coming of age story.” From Seren’s website:

“Farmer’s daughter Beth is a child of nature, utterly at one with the rugged landscape on which she tends the farm’s sheep, in a remote valley in the Black Mountains. But change is coming. The modern world arrives with the construction of a reservoir in a neighbouring valley. Part of the mountain is taken away to build the dam; there are people, machinery, noise. Then the farms are emptied of their young men by the First World War, including Beth’s beloved brother Daniel, who goes missing in action. Her mother turns to religion, her father falls silent.

“Beth takes to the mountain, and a solitude interrupted by the arrival of a colony of artists led by the charismatic Eric Gill. And among them is Gill’s apprentice, Gabriel. When the colony moves on, Beth faces a terrible choice: can she leave the Mountain to be with Gabriel?

“At its heart (the novel) is the dramatic landscape, which, like Beth, suffers an end to innocence. This lyrically written novel, reminiscent of Sarah Hall, marks the arrival of an appealing new voice in fiction.”

We wish Diana great success with the novel when it arrives next month and hope she finds many new readers.

Diana Powell won the 2022 Bristol Short Story Prize with her story, A Cure For All Our Ills. It is published in our Volume 15 anthology by Tangent Books: https://www.tangentbooks.co.uk/shop/bristol-short-story-prize-anthology-volume-15