Nicola Garrard: 'On The Edge' (Old Barn Books 2025)

Event information

Join acclaimed novelist Nicola Garrard, discussing her powerful new novel ‘On the Edge’ which has been nominated for the Carnegie Medal. Set in a West Country fishing town similar to Bude, the novel explores lives shaped by rural precarity and examines the pressures faced by places transformed by tourism.

The conversation will range from the inspirations behind the novel to its resonant themes of belonging, activism and the power of community, with particular attention to how changing coastal economies affect young people who live and work there year-round. There will be time for audience questions and a book signing.
Warm, engaging and deeply relevant, this event offers festival-goers the chance to connect with one of the UK’s most socially insightful contemporary writers, and to reflect on stories that feel especially close to home.

Nicola Garrard is a secondary school teacher and critically acclaimed author. Her latest YA/Crossover novel, tackles youth, class and radical protest against the backdrop of the coastal-rural housing crisis. She has taught English for 25 years in state schools and Alternative Provision. Her fiction is driven by a commitment to social justice, youth empowerment and giving voice to the unheard.