1990s sound system culture and mobilisation against the Criminal Justice Bill collide with the atomisation and confusion of post-brexit post-Grenfell London, as FOLK casts a neon light on the breakdown of a society and what it means to go under the radar.
FOLK by Stef Macbeth
Coming out in 2025 on Velocity Press (UK)
A hit and run incident unearths ghosts of lives that never came to pass, and the possibility of moving forward.
Meanwhile, the legacy of a youth group, and the betrayals that led to its untimely demise, continue to haunt decades on.
FOLK is a tale of youth, friendship and fluidity, of false starts, second chances, flight and redemption; a novel about who we once were, who we still are, who we might have been, and the heart’s resistance to the grim banality and isolation of modern life.
In 2023 FOLK was nominated for the McKitterick Prize from the British Society of Authors, which is awarded every year to first-time novelists, published or unpublished, who are aged 40 or over at the time of submission.
Synopsis
Mark has attended Folk, the local youth group, for as long as he can remember. It’s an escape from the tensions of his own family and it’s where he’s made friends for life: brilliant and beautiful Zee, sarcastic fun girl, Anna, and Seb, who’s in a real band.
When Gerry, the group’s ‘thorn in the side of the establishment’ leader, introduces a new member, Jason, and enlists Mark to take him under his wing, it throws everything out of kilter. Who is this ‘Jason’ guy, with his tracksuits, beats and chemical drugs? And why is everyone so in awe of him? Jason just isn’t ‘Folk’.
Set against a backdrop of rebellion and discontent after more than a decade of Conservative government, FOLK is an elegiac and lyrical story about what it means to belong and how we fall through the cracks in a broken society.
Coming soon on Velocity Press (2025 release)
For preorders and further info, drop me a line