{"id":330,"date":"2026-01-28T15:20:27","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T15:20:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/joshuageer.com\/?p=330"},"modified":"2026-01-28T15:20:57","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T15:20:57","slug":"the-night-swimmer-novel-on-hastings-and-the-poetry-of-the-tide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joshuageer.com\/?p=330","title":{"rendered":"The Night Swimmer novel on Hastings and the poetry of the tide"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A review and interview with Simon J. Houlton about his debut novel, The Night Swimmer.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

*This article was first published by the <\/strong>Hastings Independent<\/strong> <\/em>on 17 January. You can find the original print here.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In The Night Swimmer<\/a>,<\/em> Simon J Houlton casts his debut novel into the restless dark and grit of the Hastings coastline, a place he knows not simply as a novel setting but also as home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The book follows William \u201cBill\u201d Eckersley, an unemployed would-be writer who drifts through life by day and swims alone in the black water by night, caught somewhere between breakdown and revelation. It tackles difficult themes from mental health and addiction to the quiet delusions that keep people afloat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While these themes will land differently for different readers, what is unmistakable is Houlton\u2019s intimate understanding of Hastings and the emotional terrain that shaped both author and story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks for reading Joshua\u2019s Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A Hastings story by a Hastings writer<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I spoke with Houlton, it was immediately clear how deeply the town runs through his work. Born and raised on the West Hill and spending most of his life in and around the Old Town, his relationship with Hastings is lived-in, contradictory and honest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHastings is the perfect setting for a novel like The Night Swimmer<\/em>\u201d, he told me. \u201cArtsy, whimsical, and eccentric in one breath, dark and beset by all manner of social issues in the next.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the novel, this duality becomes the atmosphere Bill breathes: the charm and the struggle, the humour and the heaviness. Setting the book when the pier was still a burnt-out skeleton adds further bleakness to Bill\u2019s nocturnal swims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Houlton says, Bill is \u201cjust an ordinary man with a dream he is struggling to achieve, much like the rest of us, doing whatever is necessary to get along in life\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A life shaped by the town<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of Houlton\u2019s first experiences happened here: \u201cFirst girlfriend, first wife, first job, first divorce, first mouthful of beer, first child.\u201d He has worked in countless pubs across the Old Town and town centre and believes \u201cpeople are shaped by the places they come from\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That authenticity is one of the novel\u2019s strongest qualities. His rendering of Hastings feels grounded and vividly remembered. Even now, living in Turkey, he says writing \u201ckeeps my memories of it alive\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe town shapes the stories I write, but it also shaped me long before I ever thought to write a book. Hastings and its people will always have a piece of my heart,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writing between reality and imagination<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Houlton describes his writing process as \u201chaphazard at best\u201d, full of bursts of hyperfocus followed by stretches of procrastination. The Night Swimmer was written in non-linear pieces, later stitched together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His next Hastings-set novel is being written chronologically, \u201cmostly because it is a dual timeline and I would prefer not to go insane.\u201d This fractured approach mirrors Bill\u2019s mental landscape, in which reality and imagination frequently blur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sea as mirror and refuge<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Houlton, the sea is not merely symbolic; it is woven into his own memory. \u201cI miss the sea. The sound of it, the smell, the crunch of shingle underfoot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writing about it comes naturally: \u201cIt is not something I have to invent, just something I need to describe as honestly as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the novel, the sea becomes both refuge and threat. Bill\u2019s night swims hold the book\u2019s emotional core, those moments when he steps into the dark water \u201chalf wanting to vanish, half wanting to feel alive\u201d. That tension between chaos and peace is central to the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think many people who live in Hastings will resonate Houlton\u2019s contemplative relationship with the sea. \u201cSince I was young, the sea has always been my thinking place. Whatever problem you face in life, you can sit on the beach or the hill, stare across the Channel, and think. I often pity people who grow up without it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a>
Looking out over Hastings Old Town and the seafront from East Hill.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Final thoughts<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Night Swimmer is an ambitious, emotionally raw debut. It challenges the reader with its spiralling interiority, offering a vivid sense of place and a tender understanding of the weight carried by ordinary people. Hastings is not just a backdrop, it is the novel\u2019s pulse, reminding the reader of its peculiar beauty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking with Houlton makes it clear that writing about Hastings, even while living in Turkey, is a beautiful act of remembering and staying connected to the town that shaped him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A review and interview with Simon J. Houlton about his debut novel, The Night Swimmer. *This article was first published by the Hastings Independent on 17 January. You can find the original print here. In The Night Swimmer, Simon J Houlton casts his debut novel into the restless dark and grit of the Hastings coastline, a place he knows not … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Night Swimmer novel on Hastings and the poetry of the tide”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joshuageer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joshuageer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joshuageer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joshuageer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joshuageer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=330"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/joshuageer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":333,"href":"https:\/\/joshuageer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330\/revisions\/333"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joshuageer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joshuageer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joshuageer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joshuageer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}