An Interview With: Anna Bailey
Longlisted for Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2022 for Tall Bones
Longlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award 2022, Anna Bailey joins Harrogate International Festivals and host Joe Haddow, to talk about his book, Tall Bones.
When Emma leaves her friend Abi at a party in the woods, she believes that their lives are just beginning. Many things will happen that night, beneath the stark beauty of the stars, but Emma will never see her friend again. But what happens next in Whistling Ridge is so much more than the story of a missing girl. It’s a spellbinding story that will keep you guessing, a story of surprises and secrets, regrets and rage, love and lies. Abi’s disappearance cracks open the facade of this small town, peeling away the layers of its past. Even within Abi’s own family there are questions to be asked – of the older brother whom Abi betrayed, of the shining younger sibling who hides his wounds, of her mother and her father – both in thrall to the fiery preacher who has an unsettling grasp on the whole town. And then there is Rat, the outsider, whose exciting presence is a catalyst for change. Anything could happen in a tinder-box like Whistling Ridge. All it will take is just one spark… the truth of what happened that night at the Tall Bones. Beautifully written, arresting, and constantly surprising, Tall Bones is a gripping read from a stunning new voice.
A little more about the author…
Anna Bailey was born in 1995 and grew up in Gloucestershire, before going on to study Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. She lived in Texas and Colorado before returning to the UK and enrolling on a course with Curtis Brown Creative, where she wrote her first novel, Tall Bones, inspired by her experience of small-town America.
