The Hollow Sea: The unforgettable and mesmerising debut inspired by mythology

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Thordis lived on the Island of Bride with her fisherman husband. When she

The setting on a remote British island is evocative and strongly anchors the book with the sense of place vital to the book’s heart .i would have loved to have read this book staring out to sea but instead I was probably as far from the ocean that you can get .The book transported me so well that I felt I could hear the gulls and smell the brine An incredibly beautiful story, shot through with shimmering myth, sorrow and hope Polly Crosby, author of The Illustrated Child

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Hanley's brother was the novelist Gerald Hanley and his nephew the American novelist and playwright William Hanley. James Hanley's wife also published three novels, as Timothy Hanley. She died in 1980. James Hanley himself died in 1985. He was buried in Llanfechain, Wales. [11] St. Garmon's Church Llanfechain. The Hanleys lived in Llanfechain from December 1940 until 1963, and Hanley was buried there. Works [ edit ] 1930s and 1940s [ edit ] Overall, this novel was an entertaining read and a very promising debut, despite some flaws, and I would definitely read the author's next works, either set in the same universe or not. In September 2001, to mark what was then believed to be the centennial of James Hanley's birth, a one-day symposium was held at Jesus College, Cambridge. Another important landmark was the publication in 2002 of John Fordham's James Hanley: Modernism and the Working Class by the University of Wales Press, which amongst other things suggests that Hanley is not simply a realist or naturalist, but because of his use of expressionistic techniques, should be seen as a modernist. [64] Fordham's study also contains new biographical material. The third novel in Hanley's The Furys Chronicle, Our Time is Gone, was published in 1940, and takes place in middle of the First World War, between in November 1915, and September 1916". [43] The action takes place mostly in Gelton. The father Denny Fury has returned to the sea, "as a stoker on a liner that has been taken over as a troopship," [44] and Desmond Fury is a captain in the army. Peter Fury is serving a fifteen-year prison sentence for his murder of Mrs Ragner. However, John Fordham comments on the fact that Our Time is Gone "discloses a surprisingly non-belligerent tone for a Second World War novel" and the "unprecedented" for a novel published during a war "central heroism of Joseph Kilkey" who is a conscientious objector. [45] The Powys Society Collection (Exeter University): Inscribed books from Hanley to various members of the Powys family, together with a small number of letters and manuscripts.

A beautifully written, heart-rending atmospheric novel of finding what makes one whole Melissa Fu, author of Peach Blossom Spring

I found these early flashes to the past disjointed and confusing (they’re also not linear). But once I started to understand it, and Scottie’s and Thordis’ stories, it did pull me in. I was desperate to know how they were connected - one of their main connections is their grief and heartbreak over their struggles to bear children. James (Joseph) Hanley (3 September 1897 – 11 November 1985) was a British novelist, short story writer, and playwright from Kirkdale, Liverpool, Lancashire, of Irish descent. Hanley came from a seafaring family and spent two years at sea himself, during World War I. He published his first novel Drift in 1930. In the 1930s and 1940s his novels and short stories focussed on seamen and their families, and included Boy (1931), the subject of an obscenity trial. After World War II there was less emphasis on the sea in his works. While frequently praised by critics, Hanley's novels did not sell well. In the late 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s he wrote plays, mainly for the BBC, for radio and then for television, and also for the theatre. He returned to the novel in the 1970s. His last novel, A Kingdom, was published in 1978, when he was eighty. His brother Gerald was also a novelist. National Library of Wales: A good selection of Hanley books, and an important collections of manuscripts and letters.

Despite the islanders' warnings, Scottie sets out to discover the truth. But as she dares to cross the Hollow Sea, will its secrets give her the answers she needs?Scottie’s ostensible reason for visiting the islands is to take part in a seal survey. This provides plenty of sea action, marine life and island views. Kirby takes the time to examine matters of ecology, and the differing attitudes to marine life between the islanders and the ecologists, between the present and the past. After seven stanzas in which he complains of the difficulty of making a beginning in poetry; confesses that his imagination is weakening; that the sad truth turns what was once romantic to burlesque ("And if I laugh at any mortal thing, / 'Tis that I may not weep" — St. 4); admits that some have accused him of designs against "the creed and morals of the land"; and claims that his only intention is to be merry, Byron reintroduces Haidée and Juan. They were not meant to grow old but were meant to die in happy springtime. Whom the gods love die young. They think not of time's ravages; they find fault only with the way it speeds away from them. Their existence is a perfect one. They are like children, or like a nymph and her beloved, and are not meant to fill a place in a real world. They are perfectly happy. The rhythm of the waves was different from anything I’d heard before and yet, at the same time, it reminded me of something. These were the waves that had tugged at my soul, sung to me my whole life.