The Offing: A BBC Radio 2 Book Club Pick

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Before meeting his family's expectations of a job in the pit, he sets off alone on foot to explore the nearby country, sleeping rough and taking casual agricultural work. His travels take him out to the moors, then south and east to the Cleveland coast and Robin Hood's Bay. Here he stumbles on the remote cottage where he meets its owner Dulcie, a forty-something eccentric heiress who lives there alone surrounded by an increasingly wild garden. It reminds me of a time when David Bowie could serve up something new with almost every album ... the book portrays an uncanny feminine touch and though the trip is gentle, there are deep undercurrents in this heart of a new rural darkness * CAUGHT BY THE RIVER *

Robert recounts how, as a callow teenager, the Second World War “had awakened within me a sense of adventure, a wanderlust to step beyond the end of the street where the flagstones finally gave themselves to the fields … to explore whatever it was that lay beyond this shimmering mirage that turned the horizon into an undulating ocean of blossoming greens”. What a radical thing, these days, to have written a book so full of warmth and kindness. Two complaints: it made me hungry, especially their first meal. It made me want to swim so badly. It's gorgeous -- MAX PORTER As a journalist he has written about the arts and nature for publications including New Statesman, The Guardian, The Spectator, NME, Mojo, Time Out, New Scientist, Caught By The River, The Morning Star, Vice, The Quietus, Melody Maker and numerous others.Like all your novels, it’s deeply engaged with place, in this case Robin Hood’s Bay. What was it about that landscape that made you want to write about it? Vaguely alphabetically, but not strict and definitely not by colour. That’s the behaviour of a psychopath. Recipient of the Roger Deakin Award and first published by Bluemoose Books, Myers' novel The Gallows Pole was published to acclaim in 2017 and was winner of the Walter Scott Prize 2018 - the Benjamin Myers was born in Durham, UK, in 1976. In my work I have always looked towards Walter Pater’s quote “all art constantly aspires to the condition of music.” I have been presenting a radio show on NTS for the past seven years, compiling and programming an hour-long mix every month. I wondered how this format would work with video and sound choreographed in the spaces of a gallery. When planning the exhibition’s structure I likened it to an amusement park Dark Ride, travelling through a loop of changing videos, sounds and lights, with a start and end point that gets repeated throughout the day. Connected to the Dark Ride is a light space exhibiting paintings by Alessandro Raho, who uses the old technology of oil paint to portray the now. Similarly, airbrush artist Darren Horton’s mural captures the seaside legacy of depicting future or hyper-modern fantasies. Tracey Williams’ Lost at Sea Project documents synthetic creatures brought to shore with the tide. A consequence that will abide for a thousand years. Yet viewed through the eyes of the young the conflict was an abstraction, a memory once removed and already fading. It wasn’t our war. It wouldn’t ruin our lives before they had even started.”

The Offering is the third novel about mental illness I’ve read this year and it was the one I enjoyed the least. Staying with Dulcie, Robert’s life opens into one of rich food, sea-swimming, sunburn and poetry. The two come from different worlds, yet as the summer months pass, they form an unlikely friendship that will profoundly alter their futures. Offene See von Benjamin Myers, übersetzt von Klaus Timmermann und Ulrike Wasel, ist ein sehr langsamer und atmosphärischer Roman, der mir einige wunderschöne Lesestunden am Strand beschert hat. Wir Lesenden begleiten Robert auf seinen Wanderungen - sowohl der Wanderung durch die kleinen Dörfchen Englands hin zum Meer, als auch der Wanderung zu sich selbst, die er bei Dulcie in ihrem alten Cottage und dem Atelier unternimmt. Beide waren sehr interessant zu lesen und vor allem Dulcie habe ich wirklich ins Herz geschlossen. On the plus side: beautiful writing, although there were constant (too many?) references to light and nature/creation. I found the parallel time frames worked well - switching from one place of misery to a different one every chapter or so was a relief in a strange way. A relevant and nostalgic tale of an unlikely friendship and of the different ways one can connect to another person as well as to nature. Robert’s reminiscences of his youth and the past present us with seemingly quiet moments that are as moving as they are beautiful.McClean also made this story so relatable to everyday issues, without trying to fit too much in. With the issues of mental health and how religion can take over the mind, this novel incorporated so much of the real world whilst keeping it detailed as though through the limited scope of a young girl who knows nothing of the outside world. A gorgeous summer song of a book, quietly and precisely what the world needs, calling friendship and gentleness from people, place and language, The Offing is about the best of us. It is to be treasured and passed on -- HORATIO CLARE This is, from the outset, a somewhat unsettling novel, with a powerful sense of foreboding that hangs over both the past and present narratives, rather like the shadowy presence of the judgemental, threatening Old Testament God Madeline's father has taught her to fear. Darkness is always just around the corner, even when Madeline speaks of her love of the island and its natural landscape, or her touching bond with her dog Elijah, effectively her only friend. As the family sink into poverty and resentment, it's impossible not to share Madeline's own bitter anger at her father's stubborn insistence that God will provide, not to mention his dismissal of his wife's obvious suffering as she begins to succumb to depression, his beliefs as rigid as his temper is volatile. Meanwhile, in the present day there are obvious parallels between Madeline's father and Dr Lucas, the domineering psychiatrist. See Europe at the very least while you can, because soon enough someone else will decide to try to destroy it again. And, God knows, they like to rope the young into their messes.’” Dulcie is tall, outspoken and unconventional – I pictured her as (Meryl Streep as) Julia Child in the movie Julie & Julia. She introduces Robert to whole new ways of thinking: that not everyone believes in God, that Germans might not be all bad, that life can be about adventure and pleasure instead of duty. “The offing” is a term for the horizon, as well as the title of a set of poems Robert finds in the dilapidated studio, and both literature and ambition change his life forever. Bright, languid and unpredictable, the novel delights in everyday sensual pleasures like long walks with a dog, dips in the ocean and an abundance of good food. I can’t think of another book I’ve read that’s quite like it – how refreshing is that?

The language, unreliable as it is seen in a Caligariesque way through the eyes of a mental patient, is at once poetic and pungent; you can really smell the farm on the island, Madeline's sensory world is the strongest she inhabits and child-like (and Proust like) it is the smells and tastes that are the most evocative under hypnosis.

About the author

The Offing presents the notion that being introduced to the right person can transform your life forever. Dulcie teaches Robert how to live – everyone needs a Dulcie Piper in their life! And Robert, after uncovering Dulcie’s secret, leads her to peace. From the beginning I wanted Jessica Hobbs on board. She is so brilliant with character and rigorous about being authentic with following the psychological and emotional story. If we can succeed in capturing an iota of Benjamin Myers’ novel the film will be beautiful and a life enhancer. In Jessica’s hands I have little doubt we will.” Over the course of two years, the Emerging Producers have worked with Turner Contemporary to help research, develop and deliver a series of programmes. For In The Offing the group has worked alongside the gallery’s Learning team to re-design the Clore Learning Studio space to create a hub for creativity, designed for young people of all ages to relax, reflect and experiment. This Creative Estuary Co-commission takes the form of a playfully designed space which takes inspiration from faded seaside resorts with a contemporary twist. During the autumn 2023 season, the space will host art workshops and the Children’s Art Library during the day, turning into a music venue for emerging local talent on selected evenings, also programmed by the group. Your previous novels were put out by a small independent publisher, Bluemoose . After the Walter Scott prize and the huge sales of The Gallows Pole, The Offing feels like a departure both in the fact that it’s being published by Bloomsbury and in its more gentle, pastoral feel. Hunstanworth Village Hall Book Group review: Nine members read this book. They gave it an overall score of 4.5 / 5. The offing, she explains to him as they look out across the water to Europe, is “that distant stretch of sea where sky and water merge”; she broadens his horizons but is only too aware that horizons can also contract.