Cautious, A Boat Adrift

As a failing journalist cares for his alcoholic grandfather, remnants of the elderly man’s long-buried stories resurface and drive him to an obsessional search for truth.

“The land of men is an untouched one. It is the companionship of quiet. It is so many darkened boats, heading their own way, in the night.”

Leeds, 2017. Disaffected journalist Fred Whitby and his mother visit Grandad Norman following the death of his callous second wife, Brenda. Norman has relapsed into alcoholism. Brenda’s daughter and her husband have invaded the house.

Whilst writing a diary in attempt to revive his creativity, Fred finds himself cast adrift in his family history, trying frantically to piece together the fragmented memories, half-truths, secrets and mythologies that lie therein. Disappearances. Post-war protection rackets. An IRA bomb plot. Romantic rivalries. The kidnap of a traitorous miner.

As spectres of the past meet with the looming presence of a post-truth future, Fred must navigate the illogical and unprovable stories of his grandfather and come to terms with the absence of irrecoverable voices in his quest for whatever truth and meaning remains.

Tommy Sissons is a writer, poet and educator living in London. His debut polemic A Small Man’s England was published by Repeater Books in 2021 and his poetry has been featured in a variety of journals, including The Poetry Review. Sissons is also the editor of GRASS Magazine, a publication specialising in working-class literature and art. He has toured his spoken-word poetry across Europe and has delivered talks on youth culture and education at numerous institutions, including the V&A Museum, the University of Sussex and Sheffield Hallam University.