The Language of the Sea is my second book, and first novel, and was published in the US in May. There have been some great reviews both in print (The Wall Street Journal, LA Times, the Associated Press, The New York Post and I am told more to come) and on many books and literary blogs. You should be able to view these on the books page. The publisher Thomas Dunne , who has his own imprint within St Martin's Press, changed both the title of the UK edition ( On the Broken Shore) and the jacket with the result that the book is now placed firmly in its Cape Cod setting and looks all the better for it. The story is that of Leo Kemp, a marine biologist on the Cape who is obsessed by the language and lifestyle of seals. The obsession leads him into a life of danger and redemption when he is swept overboard at sea and finds himself living with seals in the shallow waters of the Cape.

The first book, Ocean Devil, tells the true story of George Hogg, a young Englishman who saved the life of some sixty Chinese children during the Sino-Japanese war in the 1940s and who died in the remote North West of China in 1945 where he remains a hero to this day.

Both men were thrust by chance into great adventures which took their lives to the limit – and beyond. I hope you enjoy these stories and will happily reply to any correspondence about the characters and ideas they contain.

James MacManus

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