TOM NEWLANDS & ELSPETH WILSON: Neurodivergent Writers Showcase

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Scottish authors Tom Newlands and Elspeth Wilson join us for an evening to discuss their experiences and journeys as neurodivergent writers, as well as their latest novels, Only Here, Only Now and These Mortal Bodies.

About the books:
Only Here, Only Now by Tom Newlands
Fife, in the blazing hot summer of 1994. Cora Mowat's mates don't understand her, but then Cora Mowat doesn't understand herself.

She's stuck on a seaside council estate full of dafties, old folk and seagulls, with a thousand dreams and a restless brain that won't behave. She's dying to escape but unsure of what the future holds - if it holds anything at all for a girl like her. When her Mam's new boyfriend moves in, tensions rise in their tiny house.

Gunner means well, but he's dodgy - a shaven-headed shoplifter with more than a few secrets stashed under the bed. As their attempts to forge a makeshift family unravel, Cora rails against her small-town existence in search of love, acceptance and a path to something good. But sometimes you can't move forward until you find your way back. . .

In this extraordinary debut, drawn from life but written with riotous imagination, Tom Newlands explores what it means to come of age in a forgotten corner of Scotland and dream of a life that feels out of reach.

Vibrant, lyrical and fiercely funny, Only Here, Only Now is a story about poverty, identity and family that shines with hope and resilience. '

These Mortal Bodies by Elspeth Wilson
Ivy wasn't born into their world. But she'll do anything to belong. Leaving behind her childhood in coastal Scotland, Ivy Graveson arrives at an all-girls college at a prestigious university and throws herself into the deep end of life on campus. Though her fellow students all seem to come from money and to have known each other their whole lives, outsider Ivy is determined to belong.

She embraces the world of secret societies, and as she discovers the legacy of her college, the parallels between its past and her present become striking. Because however hard she tries to ignore it, Ivy has always felt drawn to – and terrified of – the bodies of water that surround her. In just one life-changing year in these hallowed halls, Ivy will have to decide how much sisterhood means to her and how far she’ll go to become the person she was destined to be.

A richly atmospheric campus novel, perfect for fans of The Secret History and dark academia, These Mortal Bodies is an intoxicating story of obsession, infatuation and toxic friendship in the world of the elites, where rules are made to be broken.

About the authors:
Tom Newlands is a neurodivergent writer from Scotland. His acclaimed debut novel Only Here, Only Now won the McKitterick Prize, was runner up for the ADCI Prize, and was named Waterstones Scottish Book of the Year 2025. He is also the winner of a London Writers Award and a Creative Future Writers' Award.

Elspeth Wilson is a Scottish writer and poet. These Mortal Bodies is her first novel. She is also the author of Too Hot to Sleep, a poetry pamphlet, and runs a Substack where she interviews other neurodivergent writers.