Sophie Aldred

For Solstice Shorts 2021 we invited writers to respond to the growing climate crisis. From an exceptionally strong field we chose stories and poems that respond to the floods and droughts and fires all around the globe with tenderness, compassion, fear, grief and rage. Gaia is represented in all ther power and glory, and butterflies and plants sow seeds of hope, while other writers ask: How do we stop it? How do we survive it? And how do we live beyond...

"Albert and Scarlett are a formidable pair. With his ability to read minds and her way with a weapon, no bank can keep them out and no jail can keep them in. But their notoriety may have spread a bit too far. Now old enemies from Scarlett's past and a sinister new threat from Albert's world are boxing them in--and holding their friends hostage. To win their freedom, the outlaws Scarlett and Browne are charged with pulling off an impossible mission....

Idris, an enhanced human, and his crew, 50 years after the destruction of the earth by alien aggressors, the Architects, discover something strange in space that many people would kill to obtain--and could herald the return of the enemy.

Scarlett McCain and Albert Browne face their toughest challenges yet, including a return to a terrifying prison, a search for a lost brother, a town under siege, and a final battle against the ruthless Faith Houses, all while confronting their pasts and shaping their future.

"The author of the #1 New York Times bestseller and global phenomenon The Girl on the Train returns with Into the Water, her addictive new novel of psychological suspense. A single mother turns up dead at the bottom of the river that runs through town. Earlier in the summer, a vulnerable teenage girl met the same fate. They are not the first women lost to these dark waters, but their deaths disturb the river and its history, dredging up secrets long...

Set in Cornwall, coastal erosion and flooding take on a near mythical power as the short stories in this collection weave in and out of the recent past and near future, as lives and relationships ebb and flow with the tide. From one maritime tragedy to another, the community, and three generations of women from the same family, struggle with their over-close affinity for the sea.

After a disagreement with her stepmother, Sandra is banished to the desolate English countryside to live with an aged aunt. Bored and restless, she escapes to the glamourous seaside resort of Brighton as the cantankerous Dowager Countess of Kyle's young companion. Sandra meets the handsome, but cynical and sarcastic Earl of Kyle and immediately despises him. Nevertheless, there is a spark between them and Sandra wonders if she could really fall for...

Aboard the submarine HMS Thunder during WW2, the Doctor and Ace join Commander Fitzgerald and his crew as they track a sub in trouble. Ace joins in a daring rescue of sailors in the water. With German planes overhead, no-one's survival is guaranteed...

Two prisoners meet in a prison cell. Zara is searching for the Key to Time; she was only born yesterday but already she's killed hundreds of people. Ace is more ambitious: she was going to kill everyone on the planet...

Moscow 1967. The Doctor and Ace have arrived behind the Iron Curtain, and the Soviet Union is seeking a new weapon that will give it mastery in the Cold War. What is the secret of the Martian relics?