The Shadowing of Combfoot Chase

Description

One night, on a hill above the town of Combfoot Chase, a group of mysterious spies arrives and makes a plan to infiltrate the town. As the spies grow in confidence, they begin to meddle in the lives of the inhabitants. Life takes a sinister turn and the citizens find themselves trapped and increasingly alone in an unfamiliar culture that is fragile, fearful and fragmented.

But what will happen when the watchers discover that they, in turn, are being watched? They start to turn on one another.

Then one of the spies strikes up an unlikely friendship with a young actress, Ava, and together they begin to plot their escape…

Rooted in concerns about surveillance capitalism and told in polyphonic, dark and witty episodes, the novel reveals a society under threat. Thought-provoking, frightening and funny in equal measure, The Shadowing of Combfoot Chase asks us to consider the consequences of privacies being eroded through hyper-surveillance, and challenges us not to take our freedoms for granted.

Having studied Literature at Durham University, Hillard Morley taught Drama and English for many years. In 2016 she made the decision to turn to writing full time, and since then her work has been published in literary journals worldwide. In 2020 she was shortlisted for the Independent Arts ‘Jot’ Award and in 2018 she won the OWT Short Fiction Prize. The Shadowing of Combfoot Chase is her first novel.