The Lake Boy

Historical fiction meets science fiction and the paranormal in this gripping tale set in the Lake District. Cynthia lives in a lakeside parish in Cumbria under the watchful eye of her brother, George, the local minister. None there suspect her blemished past, nor the sinful sexuality she struggles to suppress and the carnal longings it inspires. Yet what of the ghostly scar-faced boy who starts to appear to her, and what of the strange lights that manifest over Blaswater? What of Mr Sales – one of a group of astronomers come to study the lights – who disappears, presumed drowned, only to be found wandering naked days later with a fanciful tale of being ‘hopped’ into the sky and held within a peculiar brass-walled room? What of Eliza – respectable, married with children – who sets Cynthia’s heart so aflutter?

What can any of these things mean for Cynthia, for her perception of herself and her place in the world?