In an epic novel set on the North Pennine Moors, Elizabeth has abandoned avalanche science to restore desolate peatlands. She treks in the footsteps of Isabel who, five centuries earlier, herds her cattle to remote summering grounds.

Both are reeling from the overwhelming crises of their day. In 1548, Isabel and her father, together with the priest in this poorest of parishes, grapple with the chaos of the protestant reformation. Today, a grieving Elizabeth fights to save an invaluable ecosystem, one that is threatened by wilful fire-raising and arson.

The entwined stories are told through multiple voices creating a rich portrait of England's most remote landscape. At its heart, this deeply moving novel interrogates how society confronts crisis whether through science, faith or superstitIon.

Anne Charnock's writing career began in journalism; her reports appeared in New Scientist, The Guardian, Financial Times, International Herald Tribune and Geographical, among others. She was educated at the University of East Anglia, where she studied environmental sciences, and at The Manchester School of Art, where she gained a Masters in Fine Art. As a foreign correspondent she travelled widely in the Middle East, Africa and India, and spent a year overlanding through Egypt, Sudan and Kenya. Anne's debut novel, A Calculated Life, was shortlisted for the Philip K. Dick Award 2013 and for The 2013 Kitschies Golden Tentacle Award. Her second novel, Sleeping Embers of an Ordinary Mind was included in The Guardian ?Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of 2015.? Her third novel, Dreams Before the Start of Time, won the 2018 Arthur C. Clarke Award and was shortlisted for the British Science Fiction Association 2017 Award for Best Novel. She now lives on the Isle of Bute in Scotland.