Dear Reader,
For the past fourteen years, I’ve been working on a novel about smugglers, women and writing through the centuries. It’s called A Wild & True Relation. I thought it would be my first novel but life events intervened and Testament came to the fore. But I never stopped thinking about the night of the Great Storm in 1703, when people in England thought God wanted to drown the nation, and my characters Tom West and Grace Tucker faced each other in rage and fear and changed Grace’s daughter Molly’s life forever. I kept writing A Wild & True Relation between books, between houses, between years, my imagination caught between tides, hedgerows, hills.
Here are some photographs of a younger me deep in the process of:
Looking –
Reading –
Writing –
Thinking –
Fast forward and in February 2023 A Wild & True Relation will finally appear in bookshops. This week, Virago revealed the cover. I am absolutely in love with this STUNNING illustration by swindler and swindler and so grateful to Virago’s art designer Nico Taylor. The silhouetted faces you can see belong to Tom and Molly, and the blue of the background recalls Regency ballrooms, particularly the colour of Bath Assembly Rooms. If you look closely you’ll see intricate details that evoke the story.
Virago also made a beautiful animation for the cover, which you can watch here. (Slightly mind-bogglingly, this has already been viewed over seven thousand times across social channels.)
A Wild & True Relation has been sent to a few authors in very early proof form and I’ve been bowled over to receive such kind words in response. Emma Stonex called the novel ‘vividly imagined, relentlessly entertaining, and rich and resonant in scope and context. It's both a thrilling adventure and a vital witness to women's voices.’
And I was utterly transported to receive this from my writing hero, Dame Hilary Mantel –
A Wild & True Relation opens during the Great Storm of 1703, as smuggler Tom West confronts his lover Grace for betraying him to the Revenue. Leaving Grace’s cottage in flames, he takes her orphaned daughter Molly on board his ship disguised as a boy to join his crew. But Molly, or Orlando as she must call herself, will grow up to outshine all the men of Tom’s company and seek revenge – and a legacy – all of her own. Woven into Molly’s stories are the writers – from Celia Fiennes and Daniel Defoe, to Hester Thrale and Dr Johnson, and George Eliot and Charles Dickens – who are transfixed by her myth and who, over three centuries, come together to solve the mystery of her life.
A Wild & True Relation is out on the 2nd of February and you can pre-order it now.
This week I also received the real-life, printed and so shiny book of Double or Nothing in the post from HarperCollins. Look how BEAUTIFUL this book is –
I can’t actually describe to you the feeling of holding this amazing object and seeing my name next to Ian Fleming’s name. It’s beyond words. But my husband Nick did film me opening the book, which you can watch here. Also slightly mind-bogglingly, this has now been viewed nearly four and a half thousand times.
In fact, it’s been altogether a brilliantly mind-boggling week. To cap it off, I saw Tom Jones in concert with my mum beneath Edinburgh Castle at sunset under a rising super moon. Tom Jones is one of my all-time favourite artists and this was the best gig of my life. No ‘Thunderball’ but I did sing myself hoarse along to ‘Delilah’.
Lastly, there are still a few tickets left for the launch of Double or Nothing at the British Library on the 1st of September (SO SOON!), where I’ll be in conversation with the incomparable Charlie Higson. I’d love to see you there for martinis, book chat and signings. Pass it on.
From Kim, With Love x
Kim I am so proud of you and absolutely over excited to read the final edition of A True Relation, I can't bloody wait. You are amazing.