Synopsis
Atonement meets Weyward in this striking historical debut from new talent Laura Evans about queer love, privilege and the intoxicating dangers of embracing the wild . . .
Suffolk, 1937. During a sweltering heatwave, preparations for a party are in full swing at Snare House. The Winthers’ only daughter, Joanie, is returning from a summer abroad before starting university. Only Margaret, ward of the family and Joanie’s closest friend, knows the truth: Joanie and Margaret are in love and plan to run away together.
But when Joanie’s father discovers their secret, Margaret’s world is turned upside down. Exiled to a tumble-down lodge in the woods with her estranged father and his colony of magpies, she finds herself becoming wild. As the heatwave refuses to break, Margaret must decide whether to give in to her new, dark impulses in a bid to get what she most desires . . .
Readers are going wild for Little Wild!
‘Held me in rapture from the first page’
‘Queer love wrapped in a darkly decadent, wild historical drama!’
‘Intriguing and creepy’
Details
25 June 2026
9781035073061Reviews
Debut novels don’t get much better than this . . . Little Wild is a study of sex, money and class between the wars and much more, gradually asserting its glorious weirdness with relish and masterful control
Little Wild is a country house novel with claws. Told in spiky, glittering prose, Laura Evans brings us into a world of simmering class tensions and long-buried secrets. As Margaret and Joanie’s plan unravels in the sweltering, claustrophobic heat, the novel shapeshifts into something almost mythical in its beauty and strangeness
Stylish and seething, Little Wild brews a singular magic. Evans’ world is ripe with wild and wicked gifts – I was a captive until the very end
A beguiling gothic debut, reminiscent of Du Maurier. Absolutely mesmerising
