A Bone from a Dry Sea

On a prehistoric shore, a young girl fights to help her tribe survive

She is at home in the ocean, as comfortable in the water as she is on dry land. The child’s people have made their homes by the bay for as long as anyone can remember, diving for mussels and any other food the ocean will serve to them. They have no language; they have no names. Although they know love and jealousy and pride, they are not quite human—not yet. This child of the sea will show them the way.

Two million years later, Vinny is visiting her father at an archaeological site in Africa when they discover the remains of that forgotten tribe of cliff dwellers. Across the ocean of time, these two young women will find a connection, an inexplicable bond that builds slowly but arrives with all the power of a tidal wave.

This book features an illustrated personal history of Peter Dickinson including rare images from the author’s collection.

Peter Dickinson was born in Africa but raised and educated in England. From 1952 to 1969 he was on the editorial staff of Punch, and since then has earned his living writing fiction of various kinds for children and adults. His books have been published in several languages throughout the world.

The recipient of many awards, Dickinson has been shortlisted nine times for the prestigious Carnegie Medal for children’s literature and was the first author to win it twice. The author of twenty-one crime and mystery novels for adults, Dickinson was also the first to win the Gold Dagger of the Crime Writers’ Association for two books running: The Glass-Sided Ants’ Nest (1968) and The Old English Peepshow (1969).

A collection of Dickinson’s poetry, The Weir, was published in 2007. His latest book, In the Palace of the Khans, was published in 2012 and was nominated for the Carnegie Medal.

Dickinson has served as chairman of the Society of Authors and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2009 for services to literature.