Imprint
- Sceptre
Fiction, Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)
The captivating new novel from the Booker Prize-shortlisted author of ASTONISHING SPLASHES OF COLOUR
In a disused lighthouse on the Devon coast lives Peter Straker, a recluse who, in his dreams, is visited by an oddly disparate group of people from a grandmother to a teenager. But they have all been dead for 24 years - and Straker thinks he killed them.
Many years ago, newly-married Imogen Doody's husband went to work one day and never came back, leaving her angry at life and other people. Now Imogen has inherited a cottage near Straker's lighthouse, a piece of good fortune she badly needs. But the cottage is falling down, and she needs help restoring it...
Guilt, emotional bruising and a Tiger Moth plane lie at the heart of this story of two misfits. Related with infectious warmth and wit, it is a testament to the essential goodness and resilience of the human spirit.
Praise for Natural Flights Of The Human Mind
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A powerful reflection on shame, revenge and the consequences of our actions. Like a latter-day George Eliot, Morrall has a gift for creating a moving story out of potentially unpromising material . . . a writer of real talent. - Daily Mail
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This original and absorbing book deserves to take Morrall straight back into prize contention - Marie Claire
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Pacy and page turning. Absorbing and beautifully written - Daily Express
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Gripping . . . Morrall is in complete command of her complex material - TLS
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Natural Flights of the Human Mind is solid, satisfying and skilfully plotted, with a cast of wholly believable characters. As the tension mounts Natural Flights really takes off. At its helm, Morrall comes into her own; steering a shuddering, febrile last chapter into an elegant denouement. - The Times
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Absorbing . . . Morrall can be a moving writer . . . She is particularly good at grief . . . Uplifting - The Sunday Times
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Natural Flights of the Human Mind confirms that Morrall writes with a brisk charm and comic vision - Independent on Sunday
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Clare Morrall's debut was the surprise contender for 2004's Booker Prize. Its follow-up, Natural Flights of the Human Mind, proves she's no flash in the pan. With quiet control and a deliciously unsentimental wit, she tells the story of two peculiar characters. Their misadventures accompanied by outside events that move towards an unexpected and oddly touching climax. - Metro
Clare Morrall
Clare Morrall's first novel, Astonishing Splashes of Colour, was published in 2003 and shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize that year. She has since published the novels Natural Flights of the Human Mind, The Language of Others, The Man Who Disappeared, which was a TV Book Club Summer Read in 2010, The Roundabout Man and After the Bombing.
Born in Exeter, Clare Morrall now lives in Birmingham. She works as a music teacher, and has two daughters.
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