Ungrateful
Dialogue Books, 2022
Cat knows she should be more grateful for her partner James. As a young woman struggling to care for her alcoholic mother, he whisked her away from her council estate home and offered her a taste of middle-class comfort.
But twenty years later, the escape he offered has begun to feel stifling and Cat wishes she had made more of her life. She had a place to study at university after finishing school, but her mother was too unwell for Cat to take it. Could she go back now?
At a university open day, Cat finds herself standing before her boyfriend of teenage years, Daniel, now a lecturer. As the spark that drew them together returns, Cat hopes that he can in some way help her reconnect with the drive and optimism of her younger self. Or is she simply hurtling back towards a past that can only hurt her further?
Will Cat stop hurting those she loves and let go of her demons to become the person she always hoped to be? Or is it too late?
XX
Dialogue Books, 2018
When Rosie and Jules discover a ground-breaking clinical trial that enables two women to have a female baby, they jump at the chance to make history.
Fear-mongering politicians and right-wing movements are quick to latch on to the controversies surrounding Ovum-to-Ovum (o-o) technology and stoke the fears of the public. What will happen to the numbers of little boys born? Is there a sinister conspiracy to eradicate men at play?
In this toxic political climate, Jules and Rosie try to hide their baby from scrutiny. But when the news of Rosie's pregnancy is leaked to the media, their relationship is put under a microscope and they're forced to question the loyalty of those closest to them, and battle against a tirade of hate that threatens to split them apart...
A Guardian Book of the Year
Winner of the 2019 Polari First Book Prize