It’s my very great pleasure today to hand over Linda’s Book Bag to Charlie Laidlaw so that he can introduce his brand new novel The Days of Our Birth that I think sounds wonderful. I’m only sorry I haven’t been able to fit in reading it. Sadly life has been getting the better of me recently and reading has taken rather a back seat.

The Days of our Birth is published on 27th June 2024 by Rampart and is available for purchase here.

The Days of Our Life

Theirs was the most important relationship of their life…

It was a perfect relationship until time pulled them apart. A beautiful story sensitively told about how love and friendship can conquer everything, including time, to a point.

The Days of Our Birth delves into the intricate bond between Peter and Sarah as they navigate their formative years. Spanning from their sixth birthday through two decades, the narrative unfolds against the backdrop of Sarah’s placement on the autism spectrum. With a blend of humour and poignancy, the book intricately weaves together themes of love and friendship, unravelling the tale of two individuals who grapple with their emotions for each other, even though they remain unacknowledged.

Let’s allow Charlie to tell us a bit more:

Introducing The Days of Our Birth

A Guest Post by Charlie Laidlaw

My new novel, The Days of Our Birth, is a coming-of age and romantic book that, I hope, balances humour and poignancy in equal measure.

Peter and Sarah grow up living next door to one another in a small town in the east of Scotland.  They also share the same birthday.  He’s not so bright, but she’s formidably intelligent.  She’s also autistic, and can’t understand why nobody except Peter likes her.

The book begins on their sixth birthday.  Peter is having a birthday party in his back garden; she is having hers in her back garden.  One is a boys’ party; the other, a girls’ party and they agree that, maybe one day, they’ll have a joint party.

But, even then, Peter and Sarah are good friends.  He walks to and from school every day, and they hold hands.  He hangs around at her house until his parents get back from work.  She helps him with his homework.

Told in the first and third person, The Days of our Birth is an exploration of how people change, the things we could have said and done and, sometimes, how we can make things right again.

It’s not about autism spectrum disorder – about one in one hundred people are on the spectrum – but about the differences between us and how those differences can drive people apart or, sometimes, bring them closer together.

The book follows Peter and Sarah as they grow from childhood through adolescence to adulthood.  They’re still best friends and Peter wants it to stay that way, because only by staying just friends, he thinks, will they stay together.

But Peter and Sarah are forced apart.  Sarah’s grandmother falls ill, and Sarah’s mum moves to Brighton to look after her.  It’s a convenient move because her marriage is falling apart.  Sarah goes with her, and is enrolled in a boarding school for gifted autistic children.

Peter scrapes into university in Edinburgh while Sarah sails into university in London.  Now free to see her, Peter travels south to meet up with her for the first time in years.  It doesn’t go well because Sarah finally understands the depths of her feelings towards him.  It’s only when she waves him off does he realise that she’s saying goodbye.

The book ends as it began, with Sarah travelling by train from Clapham Junction into central London. Her phone pings and it’s a text message from Peter.  Now a journalist, he’s supposed to be covering a story in New York but he’s there, in London, waiting for her.

On their different journeys, they both have learned that the differences between them can also, finally, bring them together.

Like my other novels it’s mostly set in East Lothian near Edinburgh.  It’s where I live and, as my novels are character driven, why set them anywhere else?

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Why indeed? I think The Days of Our Birth sounds such an emotive and affecting read Charlie. Thanks you for telling us more about it.

About Charlie Laidlaw

Charlie Laidlaw is a PR consultant, teaches creative writing, and lives in East Lothian. He is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh and was previously a national newspaper journalist and defence intelligence analyst. He has lived in London and Edinburgh, and has two children. His other novels are Everyday Magic, The Things We Learn When We’re Dead, The Time Between Space, Being Alert! and Love Potions and Other Calamities.

You can follow Charlie on Twitter/X @claidlawauthor and visit his website.  You’ll also find him on Instagram and  Facebook.