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The Winkle Picker
Set in the evocative marshland of a North Norfolk coastal village,
The Winkle Picker
is the tale of nineteen-year-old Wilf Smee’s endeavours to escape the stifling influence of his father, Ned, picker of winkles.
Ned approaches life much as he manipulates the removal of winkles from a shell; with deftness and an obsessive pleasure. It is not until Wilf meets a young Swedish researcher, Silje Olsson, and a callous incident occurs, that the tranquillity of the idyllic setting and Wilf’s fragile world is shattered.
As dark as this act is, it soon becomes clear that this is not the only atrocity to have been committed and, as the secrets of the reed beds emerge, Ned’s ability to control the situation and his own narrative diminishes. Can love, and Wilf’s growing resilience, overcome the beauty and savagery that have masked the truth for so long?
Ned approaches life much as he manipulates the removal of winkles from a shell; with deftness and an obsessive pleasure. It is not until Wilf meets a young Swedish researcher, Silje Olsson, and a callous incident occurs, that the tranquillity of the idyllic setting and Wilf’s fragile world is shattered.
As dark as this act is, it soon becomes clear that this is not the only atrocity to have been committed and, as the secrets of the reed beds emerge, Ned’s ability to control the situation and his own narrative diminishes. Can love, and Wilf’s growing resilience, overcome the beauty and savagery that have masked the truth for so long?
146 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 16, 2025
45 people want to read
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January 3, 2026
I bought this book in the brilliant independent Holt Bookshop.
A North Norfolk Noir Novella – featuring an explicit tribute to the Saltmarshes and to all things Scandi (not least their crime novel genre).
The novel’s key character is Wilf – living in a North Norfolk coastal village called rather simply Saltmarsh Village although (given its seal trips, bird watching huts on a shingle spit, church and saltmarshes) heavily and recognisably influenced by the area around Blakeney (the author lives in North Norfolk) – nineteen years old and living in a small cottage (on the edge of the local estate) with his forbidding and taciturn father Ned he works part time in the local pub and part time as a Samphire forager.
Ned (who also features as a third party point of view character) worked for years as a farm hand – but now with the farm closed he works on the seal boats (due to a family link) and in the winter goes to Northumberland to hunt out Winkles which he both sells and pickles/eats. His is a brooding presence underscored by a hint of something darker.
Ned’s younger and more sensitive/refined local-artist wife (and Wil’s Mum) Martha disappeared some 8-9 years ago – her sudden disappearance never fully explained (although the police satisfied themselves it was her absconding) and ever since then a barrier has grown between father (still resenting her betrayal) and son (still holding on to childhood memories).
Wilf starts to form a tentative relationship (emotionally deep but not physically consumated) with Silje – a visiting young-twenties Swedish ornithological PhD researcher staying on the spit – although this only serves to further fan the flames of the smouldering discordance with his father.
And from there a rather gentle almost timeless (if clearly set in the current day) tale suddenly turns brutally violent (in a way which may trigger some readers) with a sexual assault both stressing the dynamics between the characters and leading to the uncovering of past secrets.
I found this a really well written novel – its real strength is its sense of place (as well as its extensive and expertly observed coverage of the North Norfolk Coast it describes both a remote Northumberland farm and a Swedish birdwatching area evocatively) although the characters of Wilf and especially Ned are really well captured. If I had a criticism (other than the rather gratuitous to me but I guess genre-faithful description of sexual assault) it would be that the short length of the novel means that there is an element of tell-not-show in some of the Silje/Wilf dynamics.
But overall I really liked this and would immediately buy any future novels the author set in the same area.
A North Norfolk Noir Novella – featuring an explicit tribute to the Saltmarshes and to all things Scandi (not least their crime novel genre).
The novel’s key character is Wilf – living in a North Norfolk coastal village called rather simply Saltmarsh Village although (given its seal trips, bird watching huts on a shingle spit, church and saltmarshes) heavily and recognisably influenced by the area around Blakeney (the author lives in North Norfolk) – nineteen years old and living in a small cottage (on the edge of the local estate) with his forbidding and taciturn father Ned he works part time in the local pub and part time as a Samphire forager.
Ned (who also features as a third party point of view character) worked for years as a farm hand – but now with the farm closed he works on the seal boats (due to a family link) and in the winter goes to Northumberland to hunt out Winkles which he both sells and pickles/eats. His is a brooding presence underscored by a hint of something darker.
Ned’s younger and more sensitive/refined local-artist wife (and Wil’s Mum) Martha disappeared some 8-9 years ago – her sudden disappearance never fully explained (although the police satisfied themselves it was her absconding) and ever since then a barrier has grown between father (still resenting her betrayal) and son (still holding on to childhood memories).
Wilf starts to form a tentative relationship (emotionally deep but not physically consumated) with Silje – a visiting young-twenties Swedish ornithological PhD researcher staying on the spit – although this only serves to further fan the flames of the smouldering discordance with his father.
And from there a rather gentle almost timeless (if clearly set in the current day) tale suddenly turns brutally violent (in a way which may trigger some readers) with a sexual assault both stressing the dynamics between the characters and leading to the uncovering of past secrets.
I found this a really well written novel – its real strength is its sense of place (as well as its extensive and expertly observed coverage of the North Norfolk Coast it describes both a remote Northumberland farm and a Swedish birdwatching area evocatively) although the characters of Wilf and especially Ned are really well captured. If I had a criticism (other than the rather gratuitous to me but I guess genre-faithful description of sexual assault) it would be that the short length of the novel means that there is an element of tell-not-show in some of the Silje/Wilf dynamics.
But overall I really liked this and would immediately buy any future novels the author set in the same area.
Displaying 1 of 1 review