Dead of Winter

Gerri Brightwell was brought up in South Devon. After deciding a degree in zoology was not for her, she took up literature and art history, and lived on a narrow boat in Bristol. Since then she has roamed more widely, working in Spain, Thailand, Canada and the United States. She has worked as a cleaner, ice-cream seller, sandwich-maker, pottery sponger, editor and nanny, and is now a professor of creative writing at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. She is married to fantasy writer, Ian C. Esslemont.

Brightwell uses the present tense, third person but from Fisher’s perspective throughout, skilfully taking an initially unappealing protagonist and building interest in the outcome. The constraints of a small and isolated community at what feels like the edge of civilisation form a powerful backdrop to the story of a very ordinary man fighting for his life.