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About Me

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I've wanted to be writer ever since I won a primary school writing competition when I imagined the Nativity from a mouse's point of view, peeved by the uproar in their usually peaceful stable. Whether I've written anything better since, I leave to you. My new novel,  White Road (Claret 2025) - 'a  gripping, page-turning eco-thriller' (see endorsements blog) -  tells the story of an oil rig that explodes in the High Arctic just as winter is setting in, and the female Coast Guard operative who is the only person who can discover what really happened but she's presumed dead after the accident. Instead, she is lost in the polar night and must find her back across the frozen wilderness to civilisation. Think polar wilderness adventure meets Deepwater Horizon... My first novel, The Cannibal Spirit (Penguin 2011) was a work of literary historical fiction set among the First Peoples of Canada at the turn of the twentieth century. It was reviewed as 'powerful, brav...
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White Road Bibliography

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Here is a post for anyone feeling nerdy about the research behind White Road. The novel required several years of research into deepwater oil prospecting technologies, oil business corporate structures and financing, oil-spill and disaster management, Arctic flora, fauna and landscape (particularly in winter), Arctic climate science, polar exploration narratives, First Peoples’ histories and involvement with the oil business, Global environmental protest movements, Canadian Coast Guard practices, Canadian Arctic contemporary history and more. You'll find a bibliography of some of the most important texts I read here: White Road Select Bibliography  
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White Road Endorsements

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" A gripping, page-turning eco-thriller" . . . " An intelligent, urgent, white-knuckle ride" . . .  " A  thrilling ride through wild seas and melting ice " . . .  " A page-turning disaster drama" . . . "A splendid edge-of-the-seat thriller for our times" ----------------------- Liz Jensen, Hollywood-adapted bestselling author of  The Nine Lives of Louis Drax  &  The Rapture  ( https://www.lizjensen.com ) "An intelligent, urgent, white-knuckle ride through the brutal Canadian Arctic, this is a novel that will get you thinking, keep you guessing - and leave you reeling. Whitehead's vivid depiction of the hazards of ruthless extractivism couldn't be more timely - and if there's a Nerves of Steel Award, its heroine, Carrie Essler, would win it hands down."  Mark Cocker, naturalist and author of  One Midsummer's Day: Swifts and the Story of Life on Earth  ( www.markcocker.com ) "A page-turning disaster dram...
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White Road - Cover Reveal!

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  I'm very excited by the wonderful design by Petya Tsankova for Claret Press . The novel comes out in September 2025. I'll let the black cover blurb tell the story...and I'll write more about the research that went into blowing up an oil rig in the High Arctic in my next blogpost.
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