Those of you who’ve been following my email newsletter will have heard me talking about a new novel I’ve been working on. I thought it was time to talk about it here on the blog too and to reveal its title: “Refugees Welcome”.

It’s a story about a London family that decides to invite a Syrian refugee to come and live with them. The good intentions quickly start to fray, however, and as their act of generosity starts to conflict with self-interest, we start to wonder whether they will follow through with their good intentions. And were those intentions really so pure to begin with?

I finished the novel earlier this year, and my agent is now submitting it to publishers. While I wait for that process to work itself out, I decided to submit the manuscript to the Novel London Literary Competition, and I was delighted the other day to find out that I’ve made the shortlist.

It’s always nerve-wracking to submit a new piece of work to the judgment of publishers, and even though it helps to have an agent doing it for me, I’ve still been feeling pretty anxious. So it’s wonderful to know that the Novel London judges saw some value in the manuscript.

The winner will be announced on 16 September as part of the Novel London Literary Festival 2023. I’ll be doing a reading from the novel, although I think I’ll have to record it and send it in because I’m travelling in New Zealand right now, and the event will be taking place at about 4am for me. If you’re in a closer time zone and would like to tune in online or even attend in person, you can find all the event details here. The other shortlisted writers and novels sound excellent, so I’m sure it’ll be a good event.

I’m hoping for more news on Refugees Welcome as publishers start to return from their summer holidays, and I’ll post it on here when I know more. Or if you’re really keen, you can subscribe to my email newsletter to be the first to hear.