Uploaded October 2020 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
One of the most anticipated fantasy releases of 2019, Deeplight is a rich and strange island adventure where loyalties and self-interest collide as two best friends unleash the power of the sea gods.
Carnegie Medal nominee and Costa Book Award winner Frances Hardinge joins us to talk about her latest book. Deeplight is set in the Myriad, a collection of islands in the ocean where the gods are as real as the coastlines and currents, and as merciless as the winds and whirlpools. Then one day they rose up and tore each other apart, changing the Myriad forever. Hark and his best friend Jelt scavenge for a living, desperate for anything to sell. But now something is stirring beneath the waves, calling for someone brave enough to retrieve it. Nothing is quite as it seems when the waves try to claim Jelt, Hark will do anything to save him. Even if it means compromising not just who Jelt is, but what he is...
“A writer who delights in language, and whose stories fizz with ideas,” Metro
Frances Hardinge’s 2015 novel The Lie Tree won the 2015 Costa Book Award, the first children's book to do so since Philip Pullman's The Amber Spyglass in 2001.
You can purchase titles relating to this event from the Festival Bookshop online - bookshop.wigtownbookfestival.com
One of the most anticipated fantasy releases of 2019, Deeplight is a rich and strange island adventure where loyalties and self-interest collide as two best friends unleash the power of the sea gods.
Carnegie Medal nominee and Costa Book Award winner Frances Hardinge joins us to talk about her latest book. Deeplight is set in the Myriad, a collection of islands in the ocean where the gods are as real as the coastlines and currents, and as merciless as the winds and whirlpools. Then one day they rose up and tore each other apart, changing the Myriad forever. Hark and his best friend Jelt scavenge for a living, desperate for anything to sell. But now something is stirring beneath the waves, calling for someone brave enough to retrieve it. Nothing is quite as it seems when the waves try to claim Jelt, Hark will do anything to save him. Even if it means compromising not just who Jelt is, but what he is...
“A writer who delights in language, and whose stories fizz with ideas,” Metro
Frances Hardinge’s 2015 novel The Lie Tree won the 2015 Costa Book Award, the first children's book to do so since Philip Pullman's The Amber Spyglass in 2001.
You can purchase titles relating to this event from the Festival Bookshop online - bookshop.wigtownbookfestival.com
![Abi Elphinstone || Everdark || [AGES 7-12]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/F0D4sqTsDVQ/mqdefault.jpg "Abi Elphinstone || Everdark || [AGES 7-12]
A world of magic and adventure awaits. Join Abi Elphinstone as she leads you into a whole new world in her latest title Everdark, the prequel to her mesmerising Unmapped Chronicles series.
It is midnight in Crackledawn - a midnight full of magic. Sea dragons stir in the depths of the ocean, silver whales surface beneath the moon and sand goblins line the shores. Everyone is waiting for the phoenix, the guardian of the kingdoms magic, to rise up from the forests of Everdark. But there is no sign of the phoenix tonight. Can eleven-year-old Smudge and a grumpy monkey called Bartholomew sail beyond the legendary Northswirl to stop the harpy stealing Crackledawns magic, before it’s too late?
Grab your compass, roll down your sail and join the adventure.
SEND YOUR QUESTIONS
You or your teacher can send questions to Abi before or during the event [questions@wigtownbookfestival.com] for a Q&A session at the end of the event.")
