Weyward: Discover the unique, original and unforgettable fiction debut novel of 2023 – a BBC 2 Between the Covers Book Club Pick and #2 Times Bestseller

Father had given them an odd look, as if he had come upon Frederick borrowing something of his without permission.

As if Kate herself is something to be unwrapped, to be torn open.

Recently, Violet had had the disturbing realisation that she was old.

She was only doing it because as much as she couldn’t forgive herself for the day of the bees, she couldn’t forgive Graham, either. He’d made her different.

Might it be possible to have both things? Love and insects? Perhaps Frederick would fall in love with her, and then, once they were married, would be quite happy for her to become a world-travelling scientist. But even as these thoughts made her feel warm and light inside, doubt rolled in like a dark cloud.

Altha. A strange name. Soft and yet powerful. Like an incantation.

as if they were heavenly beings, rather than meat and bone like the rest of us.

The previous year, she had read about magnetic fields in one of Graham’s schoolbooks, and it seemed to Violet that Frederick had his own such field; that it pulled at her like a tide.

Time seemed changed by the trial. Whereas before, my days had been broken up by little rituals and milestones – milking the goat of a morning; picking berries in the afternoon; readying tonics for the sick in the evening – now there was just court and sleep. Fear and dreams.