 Her stories are noted for their dense prose style, which is strongly focused on native English roots, sometimes reminiscent of Gerard Manley Hopkins.Her characteristic themes are drawn from a mixture of North English and Scottish ballads and seasonal rituals, which she uses to create a complex mythology centered on the seasons and constellations of her fictional world of Cloud.Her novel "Moonwise", in which two women travel in a world they have created, won the Crawford Award for 1991.