Gavin McCrea

"Are you going into town today?" she says, which annoys me because it's something she says all the time, having forgotten she said it before, and I say, "Jesus, Mum, not this again," and she says, "What again?" and I say, "Town is shut down," and while she can see I am upset and wants not to upset me like...

Love is a bygone idea, centuries-worn. There are things we can go without, and love is among them; bread and a warm hearth are not. In September 1870, a train leaves Manchester bound for London. On board is Lizzie Burns, a poor worker from the Irish slums, who is embarking on the journey that will change her forever. Sitting in...

Longlisted for a UK Guardian First Book Award Love is a bygone idea, centuries-worn. There are things we can go without, and love is among them; bread and a warm hearth are not. In September 1870, a train leaves Manchester bound for London. On board is Lizzie Burns, a poor worker from the Irish slums, embarking on the journey that...

Paris, 1777. The philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau receives a mysterious letter from a foreign visitor, Gavin Mulvany, asking whether the great man will take walks with him. Against his better judgement, Rousseau agrees. Might this stranger, who claims to be from the twenty-first century, be the true friend that Rousseau has been searching for his whole life? Paris, 2022. Gavin, a...

Against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution and Europe's sexual revolution, the fates of two families in London and Beijing become unexpectedly intertwined, in this dazzling new novel from the author of Mrs Engels. Revolution is a Family Affair. In London, sisters Iris and Eva, members of a radical performance collective, plan an attack on the West End theatre where...