Hope Never Knew Horizon

A whale. A poem. A painting.

Wexford County, 1891. The unlikely discovery of a beached blue whale sets in motion a series of events leading to the present-day re-installation of a fundamental piece of the Natural History Museum.

Amherst, circa. 1850. Margaret O’Brien, domestic help for the Dickinson family, finds a letter revealing an intimate secret between the reclusive Miss Emily and her brother’s fiancé Susan Huntington.

London, circa. 1880. A young working-class woman named Ada Alice Pullen meets the esteemed painter Frederic Leighton, beginning a relationship that will transform her and the world of art forever.

Three cultural objects of hope, their stories retold as you’ve never heard them before: in the voices of the model, the maid, and the coxswain’s girlfriend.

Reviews of Hope Never Knew Horizon

'Packed with tenderness, emotion, and humour. It opened me up to unknown worlds and left me wanting more' – Devika Ponnambalam, author of I AM NOT YOUR EVE

'Three stories of poetry, painting and science are deftly braided together in vivid, tender prose, and all linked by a nuanced and thoughtful exploration of the idea of hope. It's a slender novel but with more ambition, energy and emotional weight than many longer tomes. I loved it.' – Victoria MacKenzie, author of For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy On My Little Pain

'A beautifully written, cunningly constructed novella. Completely engrossing.' – James Robertson

'A gem of a book, with a mosaic of stories exquisitely told, tessellating to speak deep human truth.' – Linda Cracknell