Set against a backdrop of strikes and economic unrest, Alice Chadwick’s dazzling debut novel Dark Like Under captures the restless and rising potential of late adolescence in a 1980s English school.

Mapped across a warm spring day, life unfolds in the aftermath of the death of a beloved teacher, Mr Ardennes. But while students and teachers grapple with this sudden loss, the day, as it must, continues. Lessons, flirtations, arguments. The clock ticks on.

At the heart of it all is Tin. Burning bright with defiance, feared and adored in equal measure – and potentially betrayed by best friend Robin and boyfriend Jonah. As the heat of the baking hot day intensifies, rivalries and hormones simmer, and old secrets surface.

In conversation with writer Hannah Hutchings-Georgiou, Alice will discuss the significance of the 80s setting to the socio-political situation of our times, the importance of narratives focused on education, young people and teenage relationships in literary fiction, communal loss and grief, and much more.

Described as ‘a haunting, hypnotically written’ novel by The Independent and a ‘quiet, understated book…of bottled magic’ by The Bookseller, Dark Like Under will enthral and move in equal measure.