THE CHOSEN, by William Hatchet, Released by Cosmic Egg Books

One man. One planet. One destiny. Frederick Frater leads a hum-drum existence working in a Victorian bookshop. But one day an apparition walks into the shop - a beautiful young woman. Her father's extraordinary invention changes Frederick's life. The adventure that follows takes us back to Roman-occupied Britain and into the future, in which magic has become science. It is a future that Frederick can influence through his interventions - for he is one of the Chosen, a select and privileged group with the fate of the world in their hands.

Nineteenth-century London, a beautiful woman with an inventor dad, Karl Marx, William Morris, John Ruskin and a time machine. Writing a letter to his daughter, the narrator opens his story with an alcoholic uncle from whom he cannot escape quickly enough, only to find himself on the threshold of love, of wonder, and of discovery. The woman loves poetry, art and science and our narrator rushes in - where angels fear to thread, perhaps, yes - but also where the sourdough starter of a good story is fermenting, and the promise of a feed of fresh bread has me sniffing the air. Aidan Parkinson, Playwright and author

William Hatchett has constructed here a utopian novel in the tradition of Thomas More and William Morris, as he speculates on the possible futures of our planet. The book, which has ontological themes, attempts to break down the artificial polarity between science and magic, the rational and the irrational, arguing that we should be friends with both. It maintains that: 'Science and magic are not opposites, they are complementary, like the two sides of a coin. Science is magic; it is the magic that we understand.'

Author: William Hatchett, author, was born in 1958. He is the editor of a professional magazine Environmental Health News. He lives in London and has a daughter and two delightful grandsons. He has been named housing journalist of the year, in 1998, and editor of the year, in 2012. His main hobbies are messing around with canoes and guitars. He is the author of the Dragon Rising trilogy and has also published books of non-fiction and poetry. The Chosen is his fourth novel. He is available for interview.