STOP PRESS! Pre-orders are now open for this title!
Pre-orders of this book will be posted as soon as stock arrives in our office - we estimate summer 2026.
Please note! If you are buying other titles at the same time and would like these straight away, it’s best to order those separately, otherwise they will all be processed together in early 2026 to save on postage costs for you and for us.
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Manderley Press is delighted to announce the publication of The Moon is Making - an epic novel by Storm Jameson, set in and inspired by the author’s hometown of Whitby, North Yorkshire.
This brand new edition is introduced by the acclaimed actor and writer Maxine Peake, and the new cover has been designed by the renowned illustrator Alice Pattullo, both of whom hail from the North of England.
The Moon is Making is a bleak, unsettling and psychologically charged portrait of a fractured coastal community. Through the lens of the Wikker family – whose moral decline and eventual ruin is the focus of the novel – it explores class division and emotional alienation, all set against the stark backdrop of the socially divided town of Whitby at the turn of the twentieth century.
But despite all this, the book is also a love letter to the North of England, and to Whitby, and its enduring dramatic appeal to writers, artists and musicians (think Bram Stoker, Elizabeth Gaskell, Wilkie Collins, Michel Faber and Kate Atkinson, not to mention folk music, the artist Dame Laura Knight, the fabulous actor Sam Barnett, and of course, modern Goth culture).
“The Moon Is Making ranks very close to the top in the lengthening list of Storm Jameson's novels. It is superior in technical skill ... and dramatic power. Manifestly, Miss Jameson is a writer worth watching…”
- The New York Times, 1938
Storm Jameson (1891-1986) was a well-known figure in literary circles during the early twentieth century, writing a staggering number of novels, memoirs, biographies, articles, short stories, and even plays.
But she was never part of the Bloomsbury Group, or even on its fringes: she was from an entirely different background altogether. Storm was a Northern writer, born into a tough ship-building background in Whitby rather than a literary family. And yet, she was the first woman to be awarded a first-class degree in English from Leeds University; and she was an activist and a committed socialist throughout her life.
In 1920 she wrote that she “had a duty to engage with and reflect on the issues of its day” and put this into practise, founding English PEN in 1938 and acting as its first President throughout World War Two (during which time she helped hundreds of refugee writers and their families to flee occupied Europe).
Storm's work was highly praised in her lifetime, and she was a well-known figure working alongside H.G. Wells, E.M. Forster and Rebecca West. But her writing and her achievements have been largely forgotten by critics and readers more recently.
As the publisher, and a fellow Whitby-ite, I am passionate about bringing her work back to life for a new generation of readers, celebrating her Northern roots, her socialist values, and above all, her searingly brilliant writing.
*
Each book ordered through the website will be wrapped in tissue paper and secured with a silk ribbon, free of charge - and will also include an exclusive bookmark designed to complement the cover design.
STOP PRESS! Pre-orders are now open for this title!
Pre-orders of this book will be posted as soon as stock arrives in our office - we estimate summer 2026.
Please note! If you are buying other titles at the same time and would like these straight away, it’s best to order those separately, otherwise they will all be processed together in early 2026 to save on postage costs for you and for us.
*
Manderley Press is delighted to announce the publication of The Moon is Making - an epic novel by Storm Jameson, set in and inspired by the author’s hometown of Whitby, North Yorkshire.
This brand new edition is introduced by the acclaimed actor and writer Maxine Peake, and the new cover has been designed by the renowned illustrator Alice Pattullo, both of whom hail from the North of England.
The Moon is Making is a bleak, unsettling and psychologically charged portrait of a fractured coastal community. Through the lens of the Wikker family – whose moral decline and eventual ruin is the focus of the novel – it explores class division and emotional alienation, all set against the stark backdrop of the socially divided town of Whitby at the turn of the twentieth century.
But despite all this, the book is also a love letter to the North of England, and to Whitby, and its enduring dramatic appeal to writers, artists and musicians (think Bram Stoker, Elizabeth Gaskell, Wilkie Collins, Michel Faber and Kate Atkinson, not to mention folk music, the artist Dame Laura Knight, the fabulous actor Sam Barnett, and of course, modern Goth culture).
“The Moon Is Making ranks very close to the top in the lengthening list of Storm Jameson's novels. It is superior in technical skill ... and dramatic power. Manifestly, Miss Jameson is a writer worth watching…”
- The New York Times, 1938
Storm Jameson (1891-1986) was a well-known figure in literary circles during the early twentieth century, writing a staggering number of novels, memoirs, biographies, articles, short stories, and even plays.
But she was never part of the Bloomsbury Group, or even on its fringes: she was from an entirely different background altogether. Storm was a Northern writer, born into a tough ship-building background in Whitby rather than a literary family. And yet, she was the first woman to be awarded a first-class degree in English from Leeds University; and she was an activist and a committed socialist throughout her life.
In 1920 she wrote that she “had a duty to engage with and reflect on the issues of its day” and put this into practise, founding English PEN in 1938 and acting as its first President throughout World War Two (during which time she helped hundreds of refugee writers and their families to flee occupied Europe).
Storm's work was highly praised in her lifetime, and she was a well-known figure working alongside H.G. Wells, E.M. Forster and Rebecca West. But her writing and her achievements have been largely forgotten by critics and readers more recently.
As the publisher, and a fellow Whitby-ite, I am passionate about bringing her work back to life for a new generation of readers, celebrating her Northern roots, her socialist values, and above all, her searingly brilliant writing.
*
Each book ordered through the website will be wrapped in tissue paper and secured with a silk ribbon, free of charge - and will also include an exclusive bookmark designed to complement the cover design.
