THE BOOK
2024 CATEGORY WINNER – FICTION
LOST IN THE GARDEN
BY ADAM S LESLIE
Heather, Rachel and Antonia are going to Almanby. Heather needs to find her boyfriend who, like so many, went and never came back. Rachel has a mysterious package to deliver. And lovestruck Antonia just wants to spend the day with Heather. Creepy, dreamlike, unsettling and unforgettable, this is the story of why we don’t go to Almanby.
Read our exclusive extract from “Lost in the Garden” here.
ADAM S LESLIE
Adam S. Leslie grew up in deepest rural Lincolnshire sometime in the 1980s, a child of Bagpuss, distant pylons and big red sunsets. He can now be found roaming the side-streets of Oxford or holed up in the big Blackwell’s bookshop daydreaming of stories and snacks. As well as an author, Adam is also a screenwriter, a musician and songwriter (under the name Berlin Horse), and produces and co-hosts RetroTube Archive Television Podcast.
Q&A with the author
What is your favourite place to write?
I love the romance of writing in a local café, surrounded by the hustle bustle of people going about their day. Unfortunately, I’m far too easily distracted for that, and can only work in the confines of my room, usually in silence. Nor can I write while listening to music that has lyrics. Or melody. Or, for that matter, much in the way of dynamic range. So, early Tangerine Dream it is! Or more recently I’ve been finding some of the odder movie soundtracks like Hereditary or In The Earth or The Lighthouse are very good for writing too.
What book would you most recommend to others?
Mark Lewisohn,Tune In. Part one of the greatest Beatles biography of them all (which has proved so unwieldly for the author, known for his exhaustive research and forensic attention to detail, it’s unclear when or if parts two and three may emerge), this tells the story of the band’s early years, following them all the way from childhood to the brink of stardom at the end of 1962.
Tune In is part myth-busting Beatles biog (many of the familiar anecdotes trotted out by the Beatles and their associates are proven to be oversimplifications or just plain incorrect) and part social history of post-war pre-Beatles Liverpool – and it’s in the latter category that the book really comes to life. Given the scope of the book, the majority of the page count isn’t really about the Beatles at all, but about a provincial northern city seen through the eyes of three intelligent, music-obsessed but slightly useless teenage friends. For example, the story starts to get genuinely tense when the initial Liverpool Beat Boom starts to wane, and the lads haven’t even bothered to start a band yet!
But the real stars of the show are the colourful Liverpool matriarchs… in particular Rory Storm’s mother Violet, Pete Best’s mother Mona, and John Lennon’s mother Julia. Far from being the tragic waiflike aethereal character portrayed in the Beatles song of the same name, Julia sounds like an absolute riot, a proper eccentric born in the wrong era for her rebellious spirit and weird sense of humour.
Plus, the book is enormous – you could fight off burglars with it.
Do you identify with any of the characters in the book?
I’m about 70% Antonia and 30% Heather. Like Antonia, I’m quite shy, anxious, socially awkward and prone to crushes; but like Heather I’m also chipper and cheerful and see little value in being old and jaded. And I really, really like ice cream.
Photography © Marc Sethi
The judges said: “A surprising folk horror about everyday encounters with the incredible. Vulnerable, rooted characters come of age in a hazy, hypnotic book that reflects contemporary Britain through a distorted lens.”
2024 Fiction judges
