This, my second life

My debut novel, This, my second life, will be published by Hutchinson Heinemann in January 2026.

It is based on my own experience of having a cardiac arrest and sustaining a life-changing brain injury. The novel is set on the coast between St Ives and Zennor in Cornwall, an area that is woven all through my life. My parents had a small house in St Ives until my mother died in 2017, where she worked and we spent endless holidays on the beach and walking the coastal paths. My wife and I were married in St Ives, and when our son was born, we moved down there for a year so I could focus on my writing. I didn’t start writing This, my second life, until some eight years later, but the foundations for it were laid during that year and during all the family holidays before it.

About This, my second life

After suffering a severe brain injury, Jago Trevarno is taken in by his uncle and only living relative, Jacob, to convalesce in the safe haven of Jacob’s small coastal farm in West Cornwall where the Atlantic Ocean meets ancient granite cliffs. Away from the modern world, together they live according to the rhythm of the sun and the animals they care for.

As Jago begins to adjust to the reality of his new life, he gets caught up in the murky world of local villain, Bill Sligo, who appears to have designs on Jago’s uncle’s farm and in particular a field containing a disused mine-shaft. Jago determines to find out why Bill Sligo wants the field – and in so doing puts his own life in grave danger…

As well as celebrating the healing power of nature and a loving relationship between uncle and nephew, this novel follows a journey of hope and resilience as Jago comes to terms with this, his second life.