Caring for people outside the immediate family is probably the most difficult thing that children can do. In the end, after some pain, I was able to negotiate the pitfalls and find a place among my peers. I can remember as an only child trying to find a ‘best friend’, being heartbroken when they let me down. With friends it is not it has to be earned, valued and cherished. The love that families give is unconditional. T his usually involves making friend s, often a tricky and complex thing to manage, easier for some than others. In our world Children, as they grow older, take steps beyond their families. They look for a surrogate family and in this story they find it. In the absence of their loved ones the se children seek out others for support and comfort. Jade, Bates and Samson, take risks to protect each other. This means trusting people, allowing herself to be cared for, caring for others. She is determined, though, to carry out h er granddaddy’s dying wish. Jade has just lost her granddaddy and is alone in the world. In my dystopian world (set in East Anglia) ‘Most of the groups who lived by the Great Sea were the dreg ends of families’. This is in order to give the characters ‘freedom’ to move around and make their own decisions.

Writers of children’s books usually have the task of ‘getting rid ’ of the parents when they write a story. Jade, Bates and Sansom are three twelve years – olds who are struggling to survive in the Wetlands another flood threaten s and they must make their way to North-Hampton to seek refuge behind the dykes. The world has been devastated by rising waters and the survivors live in a fractured and cruel society. The story in my new novel THE DROWNING DAY takes place in the year 2052.

The Drowing Day by Anne Cassidy