THE NEXT EXTINCTION
IS OURS…
What if young people chose to stop having children?
How far would a government go to intervene?
“Insightfully thrilling writing
from the master of ethical science dystopia”
“We should all be reading Eve’s cautionary tales”
The birth rate is collapsing. Not because people can’t have children.
Because they don’t want them.
In a Britain buckling under climate chaos, economic breakdown and growing unrest, the government is running out of time. Baby bonuses, motherhood medals, state adoption schemes – nothing is rebuilding a generation that has almost vanished.
Kit is a giraffe keeper at a local wildlife park, more at ease with animals than people. Part of a movement for voluntary human extinction, she believes the future depends on action, not words.
Ayla is a plant scientist at a prestigious biotech firm. Adopted by the state at birth, she was raised to believe motherhood is her duty. But no matter how hard she tries, she cannot carry a child to term.
Then Kit receives a message from an elusive whistleblower, claiming to have evidence that could bring down the government. As her path collides with Ayla’s, they uncover a deception more horrifying than either could have imagined.
One that will tear their lives – and the country – apart…
Welcome to my site. I write speculative thrillers, mainly about the things that scare me. In this world of questionable facts and news, I believe storytelling is more important than ever to engage people in real life issues.
Longlisted for the Guardian's Not the Booker Prize and described by British bookshop chain Waterstones as: "an exciting new voice in crime fiction", my debut novel, The Waiting Rooms, set during an antibiotic resistance crisis, was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize First Novel Award and selected as a Guardian Book of the Month.
My second thriller, Off Target, imagines a world where genetic engineering of children has become the norm. It was a Times Book of the Month who described it as "an astute, well-researched and convincing novel of ideas".
My third thriller, One, is set in a one-child policy Britain that has been ravaged by the climate crisis. Longlisted for Best Novel in the British Science Fiction Association Awards, it was described as "pleasingly terrifying" by New Scientist.
My fourth novel, The Cure, explores the catastrophic consequences of a cure for ageing which is hijacked by obsessives who will risk anything to cheat death.
Selected by The Times as a best thriller of 2025 so far, it was also a New Scientist best new fiction pick.
My latest novel, Child Zero, out in March 2027, imagines a Britain where the birth rate has collapsed, and two women on opposite sides of the motherhood debate uncover a chilling medical deception at the heart of the government’s fight to rebuild the population.
My previous job working for an environmental charity took me to research projects across Asia, Africa and the Americas, and I have an ongoing passion for wild creatures, wild science and far-flung places.
When I’m not writing, I’m chasing across fields after my dog, attempting to organise myself and my family or off exploring somewhere new.
Photo Credit @paul-reich
