Julia Rampen
Julia Rampen is a journalist and writer with a long track record of working with refugees and undocumented migrants. Julia has worked for The New Statesman, the Mirror and the Liverpool Echo, has contributed to the Guardian, BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour, BBC Radio 5 Live, and is co-founder of the Syrian storytelling platform Qisetna: Talking Syria.
Her novel, The Bay, won the 2022 NorthBound Book Award and was written in consultation with those who investigated the tragedy at the time and told the survivors’ stories.
The Bay
by Julia Rampen
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Winner of The Gilpin Hotel Prize for Fiction at the 2024 Lakeland Book AwardsIn an old-fashioned fishing community on windswept Morecambe Bay, change is imperceptibly slow. Treacherous tides sweep the quicksands, claiming everything in their path. As a small boy, Arthur had naturally followed in his father’s and grandfather’s footprints, learning to read the currents and shifting sands.Now retired and widowed, though, Arthur feels tired, invisible, redundant. His daughter wants him safely tucked in a home. No one listens to his rants about the ill-prepared newcomers striking out nightly onto the bay for cockles, seemingly oblivious to the danger.When Arthur’s path crosses Suling’s, both are almost out of options. Barely yet an adult, Suling’s hopes for a better life have given way to fear: she’s without papers or money, speaks no English, and debt collectors are hunting her down. Her only choice is to trust the old man.Combining warmth and tension and recalling a true incident, The Bay tells a tender story about loneliness, confronting prejudice, and the comfort of friendship, however unlikely—as well as exposing one of the most pressing social ills of our age.
REVIEWS OF The Bay
“A perceptive, beautifully sculpted and moving novel about the loneliness and difficulty of being an outsider … Rampen writes in clear-eyed yet poetic prose.” Emma Bamford, author of Deep Water
"A cracking tale of lives behind the headlines and what it takes to survive when you’ve lost everything and everyone you know.” The Bath Novel Award
"An important story deftly told in spare, affecting prose." Joanna Barnard, author of Precocious and Hush Little Baby
“A truly remarkable book, with lightning characterisation and such extraordinary compassion. I loved every page.” Kate Simants, author of A Ruined Girl
“Woven through with beautiful stories of common bonds developed and real humanity between the characters, it shows how fragile people’s lives can be … an engrossing, beautifully written debut novel.” Mike Morris, director, Writing on the Wall festival, Liverpool
“Careful and compassionate … compelling and tense … full of humour, and precise and beautiful description.” Emma Healey, author of Elizabeth Is Missing
