The Tide Singer
Morwenna works with her Da in the small Welsh seaside town of Carregton Crow, where their family have owned the funeral parlour for generations. After preparing bodies for burial they convey them to an island cemetery in their boat, the Memento Mori. The local weather has grown wilder and bad storms have been more frequent, leading to the loss of fisherfolk and their boats. Seeking explanations for this, many townspeople have succumbed to superstition and blame beings known as ‘tide singers’ whose singing they believe draws sailors to their deaths.
Morwenna and her Da don’t accept there is any truth in these tales. Then one exceptionally stormy night, a girl is washed up, caught up in a fishing net, a girl who sings a strange and eerie song and hungrily swallows a fish in one go, stripping it from its bones. Could she be one of the mythical tide singers and what will the townspeople do to her if that is what they surmise? Will retribution or resolution result in this community so devastated by the waves?
A short novel for middle grade readers that interweaves magic into a strong evocation of a small coastal town, set in 1895 but with a timeless folkloric feel.
