London Calling
by Sarah Crossan
I live a few minutes from New York City. It’s an amazing place: loud, diverse, artsy, with great places for brunch! (Who doesn’t love a good brunch?!) Last week I saw Florence Welch hanging out in The Bowery. But even though I have lived in the US for six years and love it here, New York City can’t quash my love for London. I spend many a happy hour thinking about what I’d be doing if I were home. It usually goes something like this:
Sunny weather: Uhhh, if I were in London, I’d so be drinking Pimms on Hampstead Heath right about now.
Rainy weather: Uhhh, if I were in London, I’d so be sipping tea at Fortnum and Mason right about now.
Snowy weather: Uhhh, if I were in London, I’d so be hanging with my friends who wouldn’t have to go to work because everything would have shut down right about now ;)
I’m too sentimental and romantic. I forget all the ugly bits about London (like the traffic on the M25) and just remember the things I love, like the Serpentine Gallery or how clean the tube is compared to the subway here! So although Breathe was inspired by a trip I took to Washington State in America, I knew I had to set it in London because a future London destroyed by human folly was a place more frightening to me than anything else I could imagine—all that history lost, all that culture, all those Pizza Express restaurants. (Seriously, you think you won’t miss Pizza Express until it’s gone.)
I spent hours on Google Earth studying the roads of North London, where I’d grown up: it was the most fun I’ve ever had doing research. And every time I’m back in England, I spend several days travelling around the city taking pictures and becoming reacquainted with train stations, libraries, and football stadiums. And it never feels like work.
So when Americans ask me what I miss most about England, it’s always the same answer: London. In all its Boris-bike glory!
When oxygen levels plunge in a treeless world, a state lottery decides which lucky few will live inside the Pod. Everyone else will slowly suffocate.
Years after the Switch, life inside the Pod has moved on. A poor Auxiliary class cannot afford the oxygen tax which supplies extra air for running, dancing and sports. The rich Premiums, by contrast, are healthy and strong. Anyone who opposes the regime is labelled a terrorist and ejected from the Pod to die.
Sixteen-year-old Alina is part of the secret resistance, but when a mission goes wrong she is forced to escape from the Pod.
With only two days of oxygen in her tank, she too faces the terrifying prospect of death by suffocation.
Her only hope is to find the mythical Grove, a small enclave of trees protected by a hardcore band of rebels.
Does it even exist, and if so, what or who are they protecting the trees from?
A dystopian thriller about courage and freedom, with a love story at its heart.
- Just fill in the form below. One free entry plus a ton of extra entries.
- UK/IRE only
- Ends 30th November
Author Bio:
Sarah Crossan is originally from Dublin.
She graduated with a degree in philosophy and literature before training as an English and drama teacher at Cambridge University and has been working to promote creative writing in schools since.
She taught English at a small private school near New York until she became a full time writer.
She completed her Masters in creative writing at the University of Warwick in 2003 and in 2010 received an Edward Albee Fellowship for writing.
Facebook: Sarah Crossan
Twitter: @SarahCrossan
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