Greenhush

Rhan, a Syrian refugee living in Sunderland, arrives at Oxford to study engineering. Influenced by her tutorial partner, George, she discovers that her new safe life at the centre of western culture is an illusion fed by denial of a heating planet. The sport of rowing on both the Thames and the Wear is Rhan’s main escape.

In a trip to North Yorkshire, George shows Rhan moorland where environmental impacts are now revealing extraordinary details of prehistoric civilisations. These provide alarming perspectives on the scale of coming changes.

This novel, with its discussions of the environmental legacy being left for the younger generation, should be of particular interest in the context of COP26 climate talks in Glasgow, November 2021.