I Meant It Once by Kate Doyle

I Meant It Once by Kate Doyle'I Meant It Once explores longing, belonging and the big emotions that can make us feel small with unusual elegance and depth' Coco Mellors, author of Cleopatra and Frankenstein 'Gorgeously written and staggeringly honest . . . It will bewitch you' Tess Gunty, author of The Rabbit Hutch 'I Meant it Once signals the arrival of a major talent and voice' Brandon Taylor, author of Booker Prize Finalist Real Life With this sharp and witty debut collection,

Within the text of Olives bestselling novel lies a strange passage: a man plays his violin for change in the echoing corridor of an airship terminal as the trees of a forest rise around him

and inspires protection and action on behalf of the natural world

where corrupt officials and tradesmen do a brisk trade in supplies intended for the school

tours the dormitory towns of London's orbital ring road with her flint-hearted sidekick

by land and by sea

They are on the run and wanted for the murder of Charles I

he is the last remaining member of the family

fully embracing their complexity

police organizations and legal hierarchies has merely changed the focus of domination from our bodies to our souls

But all journeys must end and when the couple return to civilisation they find that four walls feel like a prison

this novel

creating a landscape which is constantly shifting to hold on to its inhabitants