English, strictly speaking, is not my first language by the way, Claire-Louise Bennett wrote in her first book, 2015's Pond, a series of essayistic stories by an autofictional narrator. What was her first language, then? She doesn't know, and she's still in search of it. I haven't yet discovered what my first language is so for the time being I use English words in order to say things.
Helm by Sarah Hall Faber, out now Hall is best known for her glittering short stories: this is the novel she's been working on for two decades. Set in Cumbria's Eden valley, it tells the story of the Helm the only wind in the UK to be given a name from its creation at the dawn of time up to the current degradation of the climate. It's a huge, millennia-spanning achievement, spotlighting characters from neolithic shamans to Victorian meteorologists to present-day pilots.