Mark your territory
A perfect holiday read for all ages
WE OWN THE ROOFTOPS, STREETS, AND BEACHES.
CHIPS, PASTIES, ICE CREAMS —ARE TO BE SHARED.
ENJOY YOUR HOLIDAY.
By order of the gulls
***
Young gull Lazarus (crew name Flick) is living his best life—in St Ives, flapping and filching with his friends, his crew.
His father, Solmondor, still believes in fishing and foraging—the noble arts, he calls them—but that’s hard work, and what’s the point when humans provide everything?
Yet the past has a way of catching up.
And a dark shadow is on the move.
***
The perfect beach read. Funny, visceral, and poignant, ‘The Art of Stealing Chips in the Mizzle’ is a modern seaside fable about finding the courage to face what you’ve flown from.
***
Note: Image shows hardback cover.
A look inside...
“You’re a herring gull, Lazarus. Act like one.”
Lazarus stood on a flat, grey roof, amidst a pungent mess of fish bones and shell fragments.
Father was proper ranting. “Gulls catch fish. No more putting it off. No more pretending you’re still a chick. Incoming tide. Today.”
Fear surged like cold tidewater, sharp in the chest. Lazarus wasn’t ready. His leg was barely healed, head still patchy with that disfiguring gap his mother always winced at.
You think I don’t want to fish?
He’d seen them—the divers—screaming from clouds, wings back, plunging into the ocean at a zillion miles an hour with barely a splash.
What sane gull wouldn’t?
But he couldn’t. Not yet. Maybe not ever—not after what happened.
He looked to his mother.
No? You’re turning your beak?
He’d known this time would come. Father had dropped enough hints. That’s why Lazarus did some explorin’ these last few weeks—followed the coast both ways, found out what was out there. More than this boring flat roof had to offer, for sure.
He glared at Father. Loved the old fool—but Father had no idea what Lazarus had learned.
Gulls didn’t have to fish. Not anymore.
Blog posts
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Fun facts about gulls
People think gulls are just feathered pickpockets, screaming down the harbour for pasties. True enough — but there’s more to them than chip-thieving chaos. Here’s a few facts worth squarking...
Fun facts about gulls
People think gulls are just feathered pickpockets, screaming down the harbour for pasties. True enough — but there’s more to them than chip-thieving chaos. Here’s a few facts worth squarking...
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The evolution of an idea (and title)
Sometime between 2007 and 2012 I did some work as a tradesman, in a cottage in North Wales. I can’t remember exactly which property, but I can picture it: a...
The evolution of an idea (and title)
Sometime between 2007 and 2012 I did some work as a tradesman, in a cottage in North Wales. I can’t remember exactly which property, but I can picture it: a...
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About the author
Julian Patrick lives in Marazion, Cornwall, where the gulls and the mizzle insisted on becoming characters. The Art of Stealing Chips in the Mizzle is his debut novella—a darkly comic...
About the author
Julian Patrick lives in Marazion, Cornwall, where the gulls and the mizzle insisted on becoming characters. The Art of Stealing Chips in the Mizzle is his debut novella—a darkly comic...
