Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Readers of literary fiction can be divided into two groups: those who admire the novels of the English author ...

The reader follows Tom, who likes to be referred to as Thomas Flett by strangers. He has just hit his twenties. He left school midway to be a shanker under the judicious guidance of his grandfather, ...

Thomas Flett is a rider to the sea. With a difference. He does not set off on a fishing boat to brave the uncompanionable fury of the Atlantic Ocean or the North Sea. He is a “shanker”, a fisher of ...

You've heard of Skyscrapers, but what about a Seascraper? Apparently, it's the new construction craze in CityVille, as we're being given the opportunity to build a new Seascraper in our towns for a ...

Benjamin Wood’s latest novel Seascraper (Scribner, 2025), longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2025, is a tale of a young shrimp fisher Tom Flett who has an extraordinary expertise about sea and beaches ...

Why is Christian Science in our name? Our name is about honesty. The Monitor is owned by The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and we’ve always been transparent about that. The church publishes the ...

Wood wins the award for fiction for his ‘utterly immersive’ novel Seascraper while Perry picks up the nonfiction prize for her memoir Death of an Ordinary Man Booker-longlisted author Benjamin Wood ...

A wannabe folk singer’s humdrum life as a shrimp catcher is upended by the arrival of a mysterious American stranger in the Booker-listed tale Seascraper opens with Thomas Flett rising at five in the ...

It began with an impulse to write about where I grew up. I grew up on the northwest coast of England in a dreary town called Southport. I was drawn to writing about home without actually putting a ...