Well-connected, likeable author, with interesting personal history Excellent potential Richard & Judy material, with mass-market appeal Positive reviews for The Drowning People and, with a ten-year hiatus til the delivery of this new novel, it is sure to be anticipated and to create another stir. Incredibly atmospheric, with identifiable characters and a compelling, double (actually, almost quadruple) plot that sustains itself on every level and with every strand. Incredibly well done.

Richard Mason was born in South Africa in 1978 to activist parents who settled in England when he was ten. Brought up and educated here, he became a brilliant student who then surprised everyone by selling his first novel, The Drowning People, whilst a nineteen-year-old at Oxford. in the intervening years, Richard finished his degree, then set up an educational charity in memory of his sister Kay, who died as a child. Under Desmond Tutu's patronage, the Kay Mason Foundation provides scholarships to disadvantaged South African children, paying for them to attend some of the country's best schools.