Stealing From Winter

Abstract

This thesis was submitted as part of a PhD by Prior Publication. It explores my motivations for writing, the thematic concerns which run through all my work and have their roots in my early experiences, and some of my approaches to language and imagery. The thesis is divided into two parts: An essay called 'Stealing From Winter' and a draft of the novel Grace's Day. The essay seeks to form a narrative linking my early unpublished writing (juvenilia) with my published work and is, itself, divided into two sections. It explores, in the first section, the objective conditions of my life at the moment in which I can state definitively that I began to write and in which I began to think of myself, for the first time, as a writer. In order to achieve this it makes use of my private archive. In the second section I examine the concerns that lie behind three of my novels – Alice Falling (2000), This is The Country (2005) and Grace's Day (2018). Because Grace's Day had not yet been published at the time of examination, I include a draft as the second part of this thesis. As a draft it may be compared with the published novel to provide an insight into my editing practice.