Cities of Refuge

Cities of Refuge is a ‘cli-fi’ novel - that is, a story set in a world devastated by climate change. It’s factual basis depends on 15 years of journalism writing about climate change science, but much of it draws on my ‘previous life’ touring in bands as a musician, my interests in military history and the intelligence services, and the way innocent people are used and manipulated for a ‘greater good’ that is neither great, nor good. The story: In a future too close for comfort, the United Kingdom has been split asunder by climate change and the collapse of the global economy. With Anglia and Essex under water, Wales has been turned into a vast, anarchic camp for refugees, kept in place by a 200-mile fence running the length of the English border. Democracy has been suspended, England is under martial law. In the camps there is no law at all. Yet life goes on; a travelling rock band called The Vikings finds a ready welcome among the lost and dispossessed. When they take a strange but endearing fugitive under their wing, they find themselves caught up in murderous inter-agency rivalry between security services. Fearing for their lives, the band are catapulted into hazardous flight towards the notorious Welsh camps in their search for safety, answers, and a new home in one of the mythical Cities of Refuge.