how the light gets in

(the story of a book cover)

Waking on a May morning—in that strange time when we were confined to our homes but for a daily walk to exercise—I made my way sleepily downstairs to make coffee and, picking up my phone, found a message from my friend:

‘It’s foggy in the woods!’ she had written.

Immediately putting down the kettle, I scrambled for shoes, throwing a sweatshirt over my pyjamas, and running upstairs for my camera.

I took the back route to the woods, where the path was quieter. The cloud that hung low over the wooded hillside was already beginning to disperse, and I worried that I was too late to catch the fog, but as I twisted through the kissing gate at the entrance to the woods, I realised I had timed my walk perfectly.

New beech leaves glowed green and the woodland floor was thick with star-white wild garlic flowers. A thin, misty silver curtain hung between the trees but the sun was beginning to break through in scattered rays, slicing through the mist. The air shimmered with an aura of magic and I forgot, for a moment, the broken world beyond. I wandered up the path through the trees, my camera shutter clicking and clicking as I tried to capture this amalgamation of mist and light. When the last streaks of cloud eventually disappeared and I returned home for breakfast, I was rejuvenated and, although I couldn’t have articulated how, I knew myself to be changed. Later, I shared a photograph on Instagram, captioned with a line from the Leonard Cohen song, Anthem:

There is a crack, a crack in everything

That’s how the light gets in

Five years later, I am nursing a coffee in the cafe of the London Review Bookshop when an email from my editor pings in: ‘I’m really happy to present our draft cover for Chasing Fog’. I click nervously on the attached image and, as it opens, I gasp. Of all my pictures, designer Pip Watkins had chosen to use a photograph from that morning when the light got in and, in some imperceptible, blessed way, everything had changed for me.

‘I love it, it’s perfect’, I email in response.

Chasing Fog cover design by Pip Watkins

Last week, finished copies of Chasing Fog, with its gorgeous cover, arrived in my editor’s office. Soon, I will hold one in my hands. One month today, it will be on bookshop shelves, and, if you pre-order a copy, you will hold it in your hands. I so hope that you do.

Thank you for reading,

Laura x

PS: Click here to read about why pre-orders are the BEST way make a genuine difference to the success of a book, and about the special bonus I’m offering if you pre-order Chasing Fog.

PPS: In the coming weeks, I’ll be visiting some wonderful Substacks to share extracts of my book and stories of the writing of it—a little like an old school blog tour, if you remember those? I’d love for you to visit these incredible creatives along with me:

Layla O'Mara

on 16th August

Charlene Storey

on 18th August

Penny Wincer

on 22nd August

Claire Venus

on 23rd August

FogChaser

on publication day, 29th August

and, on a date to be confirmed in the autumn,

Beth Kempton

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