Rain from Bryan and Mary Talbot - published October 2019

Set against the backdrop of disastrous flooding in the North of England, Rain dramatically chronicles the developing relationship between two young women, one of whom is a committed environmental campaigner. The local wild Brontë moorland is being criminally mismanaged. Birds and animals are being slaughtered. Across the country, crops are being systematically poisoned, even the soil itself. Rain centres on one relatively small example of moorland ownership by an elite group that impacts catastrophically on the unlanded majority living in the valley below.

Rain is a complete departure from Bryan and Mary Talbot's previous biographical and historical collaborations. It deals instead with the here and now of environmental degradation that threatens us all. The characters are fictitious: what's happening around them is shockingly real.

Published October 2019 Jonathan Cape U.K., Dark Horse U.S.A.