'A novel of shifting, silted landscapes and relationships laid bare, with quiet urgency The Woodcock reveals the complexities of desire, instinct and faith' –Eley Williams, author of <i>The Liar's Dictionary</i><br /><br />'Beautifully written - I could almost taste the salt' –Carys Bray, author of <i>A Song for Issy Bradley</i><br /><br />'An astonishing piece of literary ventriloquism - Smyth revisits the period novel with a contemporary sensibility and an incredible sense of place' –Owen Booth, author of <i>The All True Adventures (And Rare Education) of The Daredevil Daniel Bones</i><br /><br />'This is a funny and thoughtful novel. Sardonic sometimes, mordant at others, it is always witty, fast, and smart' –Tim Dee, author of <i>Greenery</i><br /><br />'Observing the consequences of the arrival of strangers through the salty prism of a small, northern English coastal town, Smyth has a naturalist's eye for detail, and turns it here upon human nature. <i>The Woodcock</i> is beautiful and unsettling in equal measure' –Jon Dunn, author of <i>Orchid Summer</i><br /><br />'The world Smyth evokes with his vibrant prose leaps off the page - every character lives and breathes, and beneath its ordinary surface, 1920s Gravely teems with beauty, complexity and mystery' –Jenn Ashworth, author of <i>Fell</i><br /><br />'Compelling' –Eithne Farry, <i>Daily Mail</i><br /><br />'Accomplished' -iPaper<br /><br />'Smyth's evocation of place and nature [...] is imbued with a compelling sense of closely observed realism' –Alexander Larman, <i>Literary Review</i><br /><br />'The bleakness of the coast, the mist, the shifting nature of the sands all speak of contingency, brutality, deception. [...] The period detail and the sensibilities and prejudices of the time are portrayed with great deftness' –Alice Jolly, <i>TLS</i>