No mobile, no internet, no radio or TV reception, no stock in supermarkets, no landlines, and then… no electricity. The UK is throttled by a massive physical and cyber attack. Police, army, government and hospitals are rendered helpless and many people die. Chaos and anarchy quickly take hold.Sam and his girlfriend Shani flee north from London to the house of his parents - Henry, recently retired, and Josephine. Their only chance is to head for Balmanie, on the island of Mull, where Henry’s sister, Anne-Marie, lives. They pile into a Toyota Landcruiser, refugees in their own country.Others join them on the way as they fight towards Scotland, armed only with a shotgun and a farmer’s rifle. Dark drones appear in the sky, as if ghosting their journey.On Mull, Anne-Marie has unexpected visitors, the members of a religious cult. The devotees are led by the mysterious and alluring Mira. Together, Anne-Marie hopes that they can protect Balmanie from marauders, if not from the drones and helicopters that loom here too. The travelling group encounter hardships, difficulties and moral dilemmas at every stage of the way. In the battle for life, the abhorrent becomes normal. The two lines of the story converge with the arrival of the survivors on the Balmanie beach. The family and the devotees begin to work together, but they are left in a kind of limbo. There is no certainty as to where the next meal will come from. The drones taunt them. Balmanie is not the safe haven they hoped it would be. How long will it be before they are attacked? Where can they run to? How will the guns be used?This is a story about the rapid disintegration of social mores in the face of an apocalyptic event, and a return to a state of life closer to that of the animal kingdom. It deals with themes of survival, of bonds of family and friendship forged in adversity, of loyalty and pragmatism. Balmanie has been likened to Cormac McCarthy’s ‘The Road’ – a journey of flight into an uncertain future. It can be read as a futuristic thriller; or as an allegory for the potential effects of climate change. It is not for the faint-hearted, but, for those who can stomach it, it offers, if not redemption, at least a hint of a brighter future.
