HILLARD MORLEY
A darkly domestic tale for the feral-hearted...
Click on image to buy Hillard's book...
When haberdasher Tom meets Queenie, a quietly unconventional nanny, their lives entwine in an unexpected and tender romance. Marital harmony seems assured—until fate takes a curious and unsettling turn when, instead of human children, Queenie gives birth to a litter of five kittens. What follows is a strange, beguiling tale of transformation and devotion, where motherhood blurs the boundary between the human and the animal, the natural and the impossible. With dry humour and a creeping unease, Quintet explores how love mutates under pressure, how instinct defies reason and how the urge to nurture can both save and undo us.Part suburban fable, part gothic allegory, Hillard Morley’s dark, sardonic novella shimmers with tension and wonder—a searing study of what it means to care for what we create, even when it no longer resembles us.
Quintet is wondrous. I feel so moved by it... it speaks to our many secret hopes and fears...a tour de force!
Rebecca Tremain
What a peculiar, punchy kitten tail of a story. Capturing that conflict of being forced into otherness, the sacrifice of self for the pain of experience. I hope it triggers some meaningful conversations around motherhood and the sides we keep hidden. Read in one sitting..'
Tracy Mikich
SHRINK WRAP
Filmed & edited by Jo Kori at Art-House-Life
Written & performed by Hillard Morley
Sound recorded by Calliope Studios
Official Selection: 'Shrink Wrap' short film
Town Creek Film Festival 16/17 Oct 2026
‘Shrink Wrap’ first came into existence as prose written by Hillard Morley, award-winning published author, as a quirky response to T.S. Eliot’s ‘Prufrock’ - a lyrical moment of which Hillard was proud, but was very much located in the past tense.
Thirty years on, in collaboration with award-winning visual artist Jo Kori's focused eye and expertise in composition, camera work and editing, ‘Shrink Wrap’ has now evolved into a refined, reflective piece of performance art. It has been filmed at Art-House-Life studios within the unique, historic Osborne Stable Block on the Isle of Wight, with sound recorded by island-based Calliope Studios.
Jo has introduced Hillard to the photography of Francesca Woodman and artwork of Helen Chadwick. Together they’ve discussed materials and texture and colour and flavour. They’ve explored leaves and seedpods and petals and peaches. They’ve investigated squares and circles and arches and triangles. They’ve sat in the dust of heritage and gazed up at their island's open skies.
Jo & Hillard say:
"We are delighted that our 7-minute film has been selected by Gallatin's Poet Laureate & film jury to travel beyond the Solent & the UK, representing the beauty, heritage & creativity of our island to US audiences at the 2026 Town Creek Film Festival on Oct 16/17.
We are currently looking for sponsors/funding to help us with the costs of converting our film to a Digital Cinema Package (DCP) which is the professional format used by projection theatres worldwide. We would also love to attend the festival to represent the Isle of Wight/UK."
Please contact art@joannakori.com or call 07563 689755 for further information.
One night, on a hill above the town of Combfoot Chase, a group of mysterious spies arrives and makes a plan to infiltrate the town. As the spies grow in confidence, they begin to meddle in the lives of the inhabitants. Life takes a sinister turn and the citizens find themselves trapped and increasingly alone in an unfamiliar culture that is fragile, fearful and fragmented.
But what will happen when the watchers discover that they, in turn, are being watched? They start to turn on one another.
Then one of the spies strikes up an unlikely friendship with a young actress, Ava, and together they begin to plot their escape…
Rooted in concerns about surveillance capitalism and told in polyphonic, dark and witty episodes, the novel reveals a society under threat. Thought-provoking, frightening and funny in equal measure, The Shadowing of Combfoot Chase asks us to consider the consequences of privacies being eroded through hyper-surveillance, and challenges us not to take our freedoms for granted.
The author looks at our times; our deepest fears and obsessions; and yet leaves us with a little dark hopee, motion and beauty hidden among the slings and arrows of an innovative plot…
Amazon
There’s emotion and beauty hidden among the slings and arrows of an innovative plot…
(Goodreads)
Overall this story heavily reminded me of Kafka’s
‘The Trial’ …
(The Book Network)