The Thing on the Shore takes place in a call-centre in Whitehaven, just a short hop from Sellafield along Cumbria's grim western coastline. When Artemis Black is assigned to manage the centre on behalf of a mysterious multinational corporation called Interext, the isolation and remoteness of the place encourage him to implement a decidedly unhinged personal project, installing what purports to be cutting-edge AI technology, with a real, 'human' voice, on the automated answering systems. As a result of Artemis' actions, one of his employees, Arthur, becomes aware of an intangible landscape inside the labyrinthine systems of the call-centre - a landscape in which he can feel some kind of otherworldly consciousness stirring and in which, perhaps as a result of his father's increasingly alarming eccentricities, he feels that he could find his recently deceased mother. Arthur takes refuge in this belief as his father, his job, and his house slowly deteriorate around him. He begins to conflate the mysterious, interstitial region that exists down the phonelines with the sea, as that was where his mother drowned. In a way he is right - Artemis' meddlings have attracted something, it is just not as benevolent as he thinks...
About the Author
Tom Fletcher is a number-one bestseller and one of the UK s most popular children s authors.
The Christmasaurus was the biggest debut middle-grade novel of 2016 and was shortlisted for a British Book Award. Since then, Tom has published several more chart-topping children s novels including The Christmasaurus and the Winter Witch, The Christmasaurus and the Naughty List, The Creakers and the instant number-one bestseller The Danger Gang.
Tom also writes the incredibly successful Who s in Your Book? picture-book series and is one half of the author duo behind the Dinosaur that Pooped picture-book series too, which has sold over 1.5 million copies.
For older readers, Tom co-authors the Eve of Man series with his wife Giovanna Fletcher.
Tom s books have been translated into thirty-nine languages, and to date he has sold over 5 million copies of his books in the UK alone.
The Christmasaurus is currently being developed by The Greatest Showman director Michael Gracey into an animated, feature-length movie with original songs written by Tom.
As well as his career as an author, by the age of 21, Tom had penned 10 UK number 1 singles and is the founding member of the band McFLY. The Brit Award-winning band has sold over 10 million records worldwide and Tom has also written songs for other artists including One Direction, Busted and 5SOS.
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