My grateful thanks to Annie West for sending me a copy of her graphic novel The Late Night Writers Club. I don’t think I’ve reviewed a graphic novel for adults on Linda’s Book Bag before and it’s my pleasure to share my review today. 

The Late Night Writers Club is available for purchase in all the usual places as well as directly from the publisher, New Island, here. 

The Late Night Writers Club

In rich and abundant illustrations, Annie West tells a rowdy story of artistic struggle, ego and unexpected kindness. You will never look at the Irish Literary Canon in the same way again.

A talented but annoying Debut Author, suffering from writer’s block and mysterious headaches, ghosted by his girlfriend and on his last chance with his bartender job, takes refuge in the National Library of Ireland, hoping for some last-minute inspiration within those hallowed walls.

Tortured by literary inadequacy and disappointed love, can he somehow absorb the famous modesty of Yeats, the wit of Edgeworth, the charm of Binchy, the wisdom of Heaney? But a weird twist of fate or perhaps a guiding hand reveals all is not what it seems in the library after dark, and The Author soon discovers: be careful what you wish for.

My Review of The Late Night Writers Club

An aspiring debut writer is suffering writer’s block and his girlfriend (amongst others!) is ghosting him.

The Late Night Writers Club is, if I’m totally honest, completely insane and I absolutely loved it! I read it through rapidly, simply enjoying the surface story. There are jokes, puns and quotations that are incredibly funny and the speech between the various author members of the Late Night Writers Club in the library is packed with witticism. I found myself snorting aloud on occasion. I loved the concept that the protagonist is highly irritating and really not the protagonist at all as he is outshone and out talked by the famous ghosts.

However, it was the second reading that made me realise just what a fabulous book this is. Of course, some of the literary greats like Shakespeare, James Joyce and Oscar Wilde are instantly recognisable, but other references such as those folk from Greek myths are less familiar so that not only is The Late Night Writers Club thoroughly entertaining, it’s educational and so intelligently constructed. 

But best of all is the absolute, scalpel sharp, insight into writing and the publishing industry, from (quite literally here) ghost writing, through social media spats to professional rivalry. There’s writer’s block and procrastination. There’s consideration of who might be the best writer, eponymous branding and author book signings. What makes the book so engaging is the fact that every aspect is recognisable and relatable to anyone who has ever considered writing as a profession. 

My third reading of The Late Night Writers Club was to peruse the fantastic illustrations in more detail. I can’t begin to imagine the time and effort this book must have taken. I thought the colour palette of rich browns, greens and reds gave a traditional feel in keeping with the historical characters we encounter. But beyond that there is so much more to uncover. Take a look at the library curator’s name badge, for example, or the person advertising get togethers for shy people in one of the newspapers or the political jokes… I could continue, but you’ll need to read the book to discover them for yourself and I’m sure there’s even more for me to find on subsequent readings. 

Utterly bonkers, witty and fabulously illustrated, The Late Night Writers Club is a universally appealing book that every reader and every established or aspiring writer will relate to wholeheartedly. I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed it. 

About Annie West

Annie West is an award-winning illustrator and writer who has had two authored books published and illustrated dozens more. Annie has exhibited her Yeats in Love series to much acclaim and her work has been acquired by admirers such as President Michael D. Higgins, Neil Jordan, Seamus Heaney and the United States Embassy. 

Born in 1961, Annie graduated from Dun Laoghaire College of Art & Design (IADT) in 1979 with a Diploma in Design for Communications. She began working in the Design Department at RTÉ  and Tyne Tees Television and various independent TV productions for Channel Four. This was followed by a decade working in the Art Department on feature films in Ireland, Britain and America. Around 1991 Annie left the Film & TV industry to concentrate on illustrating and cartooning full time. 

She specialises in highly detailed pen and ink drawings with the emphasis on detail. She is particular and punctual, and can work to extremely tight deadlines.

Annie has won a number of Awards: The Alfred Beit Award in 1993 & 1994, The NCEA Patent Practicioners’ Award 1994, and the Illustrators’ Guild Best Book Illustration Award 2003 & 2004.

A selection of Annie’s work was recently added to the National Library of Ireland’s permanent Cartoon & Illustration Archive.

For further information, visit Annie’s website and follow her on Twitter/X @anniewestdotcom . You’ll also find Annie on Bluesky and Instagram.

My huge thanks to A.P. Durston for sending me a copy of his children’s book The Land Of No Food in return for an honest review. Married to a Welshman, how could I resist that cover! I’m delighted to share my review today.

The Land Of No Food was published by Austin Macauley on 13th September 2024 and is available for purchase here. 

The Land Of No Food

Prince Durst, the leader of his tribe in Wales, is a troubled man. The Welsh dragons, the food of his nation, are becoming extinct. He can’t let his people starve, but what will he do? He will need to travel to far off shores to find a land of food.

Setting sail in his ship he voyages far, far away and discovers the land of Zitan, ruled by a Queen tormented by dragons!

Helping the Queen with her troublesome pests she rewards the Prince for his help and bravery.

The Prince can now return home to his people with the answer to all his worries and problems!

My Review of The Land Of No Food

A tale of dragons and bravery!

Before my review proper, and in the interests of complete honesty, I’m going to mention a couple of small elements that I’d have liked done differently in this story so that it models perfection for emergent writers: the use of ‘fewer and fewer’ instead of ‘less and less’, and fewer upper case letters in ordinary sentences, albeit that they are used for emphasis. That said, this is my former literacy consultant head speaking and both aspects could be fabulous teaching points in school settings. Young readers are not going to notice!

The Land Of No Food is actually a smashing story and it’s so good to read something with Wales at its heart. Here we have a sense of tradition that draws on the myth of dragons, of bravery and of quest. It’s also thought-provoking for children to consider where their food comes from making The Land Of No Food informative as well as entertaining. There’s a real sense of community and family at its heart too.

I thought the direct references and asides to the children reading the story were inspired because they enhance engagement. The question about the number of dragon illustrations on the page, for example, is super for increasing early numeracy too as well as for drawing children into the narrative. 

Speaking of illustrations, those in The Land Of No Food are wonderful, with vibrant colours. They are well balanced to the white space and text, and featuring a style just perfect for the target audience. As well as strengthening young children’s observational skills, there’s real fun to be had in spotting what Prince Durst’s dog is doing too! 

There’s a wide range of vocabulary in The Land Of No Food so that the story would be a useful tool for literacy work in school settings. Unfamiliar vocabulary is embedded in context ensuring that emergent and independent young readers can understand meaning well and is best suited to children aged 6+. 

These positive educational aspects aside, at its heart The Land Of No Food is an interesting, entertaining and exciting tale for young readers. It provides a story packed with adventure, action and peril; features that draw children into a love of reading and that’s the most important thing of all. Children will thoroughly enjoy it.

About A.P. Durston

Alan Paul Durston lives with his wife Erica and son Jack in the shadow of the 13th Century castle in Caerphilly in South Wales, near his daughter Lucy and grandchildren Jacob and Scarlet.

He lived and worked in Hamburg, Germany for 10 years where the idea for The Land of No Food was conceived.

Not only an author, Alan plays guitar and is also a songwriter being influenced by life, events and history.

I can’t remember when I last wrote a review of a book that is from my book group. Partly, that’s because I haven’t enjoyed a few and I don’t write negative reviews, and partly because life has got the better of me and like last month, not only did I not finish the book, but I didn’t even start it. 

Having reviewed Matt Haig’s Reasons to Stay Alive here, when I realised our March book group read was his famous The Midnight Library I simply had to read it straight away before time runs away from me again. 

The Midnight Library was published by Canongate Books on 13th August 2020 and is available for purchase here.

The Midnight Library

Between life and death there is a library.

When Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right. Up until now, her life has been full of misery and regret. She feels she has let everyone down, including herself. But things are about to change.

The books in the Midnight Library enable Nora to live as if she had done things differently. With the help of an old friend, she can now undo every one of her regrets as she tries to work out her perfect life. But things aren’t always what she imagined they’d be, and soon her choices place the library and herself in extreme danger.

Before time runs out, she must answer the ultimate question: what is the best way to live?

My Review of The Midnight Library 

Nora Seed has decided it is time to die.

The Midnight Library is a book that might require some readers willingly to suspend their disbelief, and that might perhaps be triggering for some suffering from poor mental health, but I found it completely engaging, moving and absorbing. In addition, I felt that the narrative could simply be enjoyed as a diverting story without the need to engage with the deeper meanings of the book. The various lives Nora lives are entertaining in their own right and the people she meets along the way are interesting and varied. As The Midnight Library is written in an accessible style it works well as a story for young adults and older readers alike. 

However, those more profound elements are what makes The Midnight Library so affecting. It’s filled with the delicate balance between regret and potential, between life and death, and between living for ourselves or living for others – or for what we perceive to be their expectations for us. The range of emotion is so wide that any, and every, reader can find an aspect that resonates with them. Ultimately, having taken both Nora and the reader through the full gamut of emotions from fear to despair, joy to contentment, Matt Haig provides a sense of hope that is authentic and uplifting. Indeed, there are real moments of humour to be found in a story about someone who wants to die which enhance and balance the darker elements.

I loved meeting Nora in all her manifestations in this kind of literary string theory. She really is the personification of a seed of doubt. Through Nora’s experiences Matt Haig is completely convincing in portraying the potential of ‘what if?’ in our lives. In The Midnight Library Nora is given the opportunity to see who, and what, she has the potential to be in other situations. She’s equivocal and flawed and that’s what makes her so fascinating. She’s a real Everywoman.

Whilst I very much enjoyed The Midnight Library as a simple narrative, I appreciated it all the more for its humanity, its helpfulness to, and appreciation of, others in real life feeling like Nora does, and for Matt Haig’s wise and sensitive understanding of who we are as people. I think The Midnight Library might be just the book to save someone in severe difficulty – and what could be better than that?

About Matt Haig

Matt Haig is the internationally bestselling author of the novels The Midnight Library, How to Stop Time, The Humans, The Radleys, children’s novel A Boy Called Christmas, and memoir Reasons to Stay Alive. His The Life Impossible, was published in summer 2024. His work has been translated into over fifty languages.

You can follow Matt on Twitter @matthaig1. Visit his website for further information and find him on Facebook and Instagram.

I am absolutely thrilled to help reveal the cover of Georgina Moore’s brand new novel River of Stars. I adored Georgina’s first book, The Garnett Girls which I reviewed here, so I’m delighted to have River of Stars waiting for me on my 2025 TBR.

Let’s find out more about River of Stars:

River of Stars

Steeped in bohemia and music legend, Walnut Tree Island is home to a thriving community of artists and musicians. It is where teenager Mary Star once caught the eye of a rock star about to hit the big time, only to be left with a new baby and a broken heart.

Years later, Mary lives on the houseboat where she raised her daughter and her granddaughter, Jo. But now one of the island’s prodigal sons has returned. Oliver Greenwood has inherited Walnut Tree and changes are coming.

Jo hasn’t seen Oliver since that glorious, life-changing summer when their idyllic island paradise was shattered. And while the islanders are thrown into a frenzy of speculation over their futures, Oliver’s return has opened the wounds of a love she had thought was lost for ever…

Beautifully written, featuring a cast of magnetic characters, River of Stars is the captivating new novel from Sunday Times bestselling author, Georgina Moore.

****

Doesn’t that sound completely wonderful? Just my kind of read!

River of Stars will be published by HQ on 3rd July 2025 and is available for pre-order here.

About Georgina Moore

Georgina Moore grew up in London and lives on a houseboat on the River Thames with her partner, two children and Bomber, the Border Terrier.   The Garnett Girls is her debut novel and is set on the Isle of Wight, where Georgina and her family have a holiday houseboat called Sturdy. Georgina’s new novel River of Stars is inspired by the legendary Eel Pie Island and its colourful history as a rock and roll haven in the 1960s.

For further information, visit Georgina’s website or follow Georgina on Twitter/X @PublicityBooks or find her on Bluesky and Instagram.

With thanks to Ben Cameron at Cameron Publicity for putting us in touch with one another, it’s my pleasure to welcome Anika Pavel to stay in with me today to tell me all about her fascinating memoir. 

Let’s Find out more:

Staying in with Anika Pavel

Welcome to Linda’s Book Bag Anika and thank you for agreeing to stay in with me. Tell me, which of your books have you brought along to share this evening?

I brought in my autobiography entitled Encounter with the Future.

What can we expect from an evening in with Encounter with the Future?

The book is a collection of autobiographical essays some of which have been published online, in print and nominated for Pushcart Prize.

How exciting. Tell me more. 

“Travel is the university of life” is a quote that rings through the book. With a dictionary in hand, the learning begins at the London airport. After the Soviet Union invades Czechoslovakia and a lonely night at Victoria railway station, life goes on and has to be conquered by hard work and eternal optimism. After all London was at the height of its fabulousness, and being sad was not an option.

How did you counteract that sadness?

Waiting tables whether in a small restaurant or at the London Playboy Club can be hard work or fun, depending on the point of view. Graduating into TV with Two Ronnies, Frankie Howerd, Benny Hill, and movies, with Dick Emery, Confections of the Window, Golden Lady, and even a James Bond movie is a rich reward for all the hard work.

That sounds so exciting.

None the less, there were tense even tragic moments, death of a father, broken heart, and unsavoury and scary chases.

I imagine so.

But, travel did prove to be an education. The joy of the new generation continues in learning, traveling, and loving. As one of the readers put it: “A touching tale of a woman who makes it through the tornados of life and still comes out centred.”

What a brilliant definition Anika. 

What else have you brought along and why have you brought it?

Music; The Beatles mostly although not exclusively. I write while I listen to the music. Many songs are as relevant today as they were when they were written; Give Peace a Chance… is the case in point.

Oh absolutely – more important now than ever I think!

I am an optimist, so I like to be in the company of books that lift my spirits. It saves my energy for the times when I have to swim up the hill, which in the past was quite often. Also, books set in history are a must, learning from past mistakes is all important!

I couldn’t agree more Anika. Thank you so much for staying in with me to chat about Encounter with the Future. It sounds an exciting and intriguing book. Let me give readers a few more details.

Encounter with the Future

Imagine if an 18-year-old girl landed across the iron curtain for the first time…alone.

What if that girl went from being a nanny, to a fashion model, to a playboy bunny, to an actress, and from London to Hong Kong, to the USA in a full and wonderful life encompassing rock n roll, new business ventures, a family and everything in between?

It is not a movie script; this is a real story

Anika Pavel was born Jarmila Kocvarova in communist Czechoslovakia. She bravely ventured across the iron curtain to England for what was intended to be a one-year stay.

As her life transpires, she goes from sleeping in phone booths to a Bond girl in the swinging London of the 1960s and 70s.

These are the stories of her life and the people she has shared it with. People stories. Heartwarming, tender, meaningful and captivating.

In a series of essays, some intimate and small, some touching upon the major historical moments of the twentieth century, Pavel takes us on an unforgettable journey.

Published by Castle on 15th February 2025, Encounter with the Future is available for purchase in all the usual places including here.

About Anika Pavel

Actress, model, essayist and writer, Anika Pavel was born in Czechoslovakia, now Slovakia and currently resides in the United States. After the brutal Soviet invasion of her homeland, rending her emigrant and homeless, she was discovered and became successful model and actress during the swinging 70th London. She managed a seamless transition from James Bond to motherhood. She moved across three continents challenging geopolitical divides. Encounter with the Future reflects this life still in motion.

For further information, visit Anika’s website, or find her on Instagram and Facebook.

I am incredibly grateful to Philip D. Rye for sending me a copy of his poetry anthology All Shapes and Sizes with no expectation of a review, but because he hoped it might provide a distraction at a difficult time. To thank him for his kindness, the least I can do is provide an honest review.

Published on 5th November 2024, All Shapes and Sizes is available for purchase here.

All Shapes and Sizes

Unpretentious, contemporary verse, sometimes profound, often explosively funny, it will take you on a roller coaster of emotions, laughing, crying, and transforming the way you see and feel about life and everyday events. With over 80 individual poems this entertaining and thought-provoking collection is ridiculously good value and deserves your attention.

My Review of All Shapes and Sizes

An anthology of poetry presented in alphabetical order.

What an eclectic collection! I really enjoyed All Shapes and Sizes because it speaks to such a wide audience as there is a poem that will resonate with any reader. 

I’m usually more of a fan of free verse and here the majority of the poems rhyme but the more regular rhyme scheme works because it is often hit with a sting in the tail or with wry humour at the human condition. Philip D. Rye writes about the ordinary like a hang over, the familiar, like our obsession with love, and the inevitable, like death, with a sharp wit that feels highly amusing at times and equally moving and emotional at other times. For example. I swear I’ve been on the same plane as the author has in Frequent Flyer! 

The anthology feels so accessible because many of the entries are relatively short so that it’s easy to dip in and read a poem when you have a few spare moments. That said, I did read the verses in the alphabetical order in which they are presented. I especially loved the form and structure of Parallel Uni-Verse and the veracity of Politicians and Prostitutes. 

There’s a surprisingly wide range of themes interwoven here, with subtle reference to both natural and social science, mental and physical health, communication and the world around us. There’s history, popular literature and politics, and there’s also a frequent humour that makes some entries feel as if the reader is listening to a quick-witted friend. 

What I found so intriguing in All Shapes and Sizes was trying to get behind the mere words on the page and to discover more about the poet. There are many references to love or insecurity (as in Just One Kiss) with human frailty a key topic so that I felt I was discovering a little bit about Philip D. Rye through reading his poems. I found When I Lay Down especially touching, coming as it does after the humour of Wedding Night and it made me wonder just what the poet has learnt about love and loss in his life. indeed, the very final poem Xposure leads me to believe the more I read these poems, the more I’ll discover…

Fresh, quirky, accessible and entertaining, these poems represent who we are as humans. Whilst they would reward a deeper study of syntax, rhyme and structure, I don’t think literary investigation is the purpose and joy of this anthology. Rather, the pleasure comes in recognising yourself in some of the situations described and feeling a human connection. Ostensibly not to be taken too seriously, All Shapes and Sizes is actually a collection that feels warm, honest and, in a curious way, caring. I really enjoyed it.

About Philip D. Rye

Philip D. Rye is a UK expat living in Norway, who was schooled mainly in London and who followed a scientific career. He loves reading and exploring the nuance of language and putting some of it to rhyme.

My enormous gratitude to Louise Swanson for ensuring I received a copy of her thriller Lights Out and to Kim Nyamhondera for sending it to me. It’s my pleasure to share my review of Lights Out today.

I’m a huge fan of Louise Swanson’s writing under her other persona of Louise Beech, and you’ll find my reviews of those books here. 

Already available in other formats, Lights Out is released in paperback by Hodder and Stoughton on 27th February 2025 and is available for pre-order or purchase through the publisher links here. 

Lights Out

When darkness is everywhere, nowhere is safe…

A state of emergency has been declared in the UK. From now on, at 8pm every night, all electricity cuts out.

The Government promises it’s a temporary measure. They promise they are always thinking of your safety.

But for Grace, the darkness is anything but safe.

Someone is coming into her house under its cover every night while she lies in bed upstairs, too terrified to sleep. Someone who knows her past, who knows why she has more reason to fear the dark than most…

And every morning she wakes to a new message from the intruder:

I have you in my sights. Love, The Night

But how can Grace escape, when there’s nowhere safe left to hide?

My Review of Lights Out

Grace is terrified of the dark and a Government energy saving edict that stops all power from 8pm to 7am, plunging her world into darkness, is her worst nightmare.

Lights Out is a cracking story. It is imbued with a sense of menace from the very first page so that whilst you might not want to read on, you simply can’t help yourself. Louise Swanson delves into our darkest fears through Grace’s nyctophobia, doing so with sensitivity and understanding. The narrative is absolutely convincing, and the psychological aspect is particularly unnerving. It’s actually quite difficult to define the genre of Lights Out because it is certainly a thriller, with an intimidating Feather Man terrorising lone women, and the mysterious addition of items into Grace’s home alongside handwritten messages from The Night, but there’s so much more to uncover here too.

Initially Grace irritated me slightly as I wanted her to get a grip on her irrational fear and simply add a bolt to her back door, but as Lights Out continued and the layers of her personality were peeled back, explaining why she is afraid of the dark, illustrating how her past has affected her and showing just how believable and human she is, I not only found Grace realistic, but I grew to care what happened to her. I loved the development of her personality and the changes she undergoes as the story progresses. There’s real skill in writing a character a reader doesn’t much like at the start of a narrative and changing that opinion to one of admiration by the end of it. Her relationship with Riley was a huge factor in shaping my response, as was her attitude towards Tom and her father.

But whilst Lights Out is a slightly futuristic, slightly dystopian thriller with vivid characters that entertains really well, other aspects are the ones I found most affecting and prescient – this could be a story just waiting to happen at any time to any one of us. Elements like social responsibility and justice, a real understanding from the author about mental health, her exploration of the variety of relationships we have, of poverty and privilege, and what it’s like to be an outsider or to struggle with life, ripple throughout so that Lights Out has depth and sensitive social awareness. Not only does this understanding add texture to the plot, but it gives Lights Out a universal importance. 

I found Lights Out surprisingly disturbing. Not just for the creepier thriller aspects that take place in the night, but also because of the representation of the kind of world that could be just around the corner if we don’t do something about the environment and if we don’t face our fears… I really recommend it and believe it is a prompt for us to write our own narrative of the future rather than allow others to control it for us. I suggest that you read Lights Out to see what I mean! Don’t miss it.

About Louise Swanson

Louise Swanson’s debut, End of Story, was written during the final lockdown of 2020 – also following a family tragedy, it offered refuge in the fiction she created. The themes of the book – grief, isolation, love of the arts, the power of storytelling – came from a very real place. 

Louise Swanson is a mother of two who lives in East Yorkshire with her husband, regularly blogs, talks at events, and is a huge advocate of openly discussing mental health and suicide.

She also writes as Louise Beech. Louise’s books have won the Best magazine Book of the Year 2019, have been shortlisted for the Romantic Novel of the Year, longlisted for the Polari Prize, and been a Clare Mackintosh Book Club Pick. Her memoir, Daffodils, was released in audiobook in 2022, and the paperback version, Eighteen Seconds, in April 2023.

You can follow Louise on Twitter/X @LouiseWriter, find her on Facebook and Instagram and visit her website for further information.

My grateful thanks to Alainna Georgiou at Hodder for sending me a very welcome surprise copy of Hope Street by Mike Gayle. I’m delighted to share my review of Hope Street today. 

I love Mike Gayle’s writing and you’ll find my review of Mike’s The Museum of Ordinary People here and of A Song of You and Me here.

Hope Street was published by Hodder and Stoughton on 6th February 2025 and is available for purchase through the publisher links here. 

Hope Street

 

The greatest adventure is coming back home.

Lila Metcalfe is a trainee journalist in Derby and she’s very used to being given the stories that no one else wants. So, when her editor tells her that the city’s Cossington Park development is being held up by a solitary resident on Hope Street who is refusing to leave, she knows she is going to be the one sent to find out more. And that’s how she meets Connor.

Twenty-something Connor is the sole resident of Hope Street and he is not at all what Lila is expecting. And he has a very clear reason not to move: he is waiting for his mum to come home.

The uplifting and heartfelt new novel from the author of A Song of Me and You.

My Review of Hope Street

Local journalist Lila Metcalfe has a new story to follow up.

Hope Street is simply fabulous. Through this sensitive, heart-felt, narrative about Connor and his missing mother, Mike Gayle provides a deep and emotional insight into all aspects of community. His skill at showing real life for real people in challenging circumstances is outstanding. This is a story that engenders a wide range of emotion from fury to joy because the reader is so invested in Connor’s life.

The premise of enforced development and compulsory purchase that affects individuals feels pertinent and realistic. The gradual erosion of the Hope Street community as residents are persuaded out of their homes is something that could happen to any one of us and I found my anger at Connor’s treatment both frustrating and enraging. Hope Street is a story that truly impacts the reader. 

The characters are wonderful. Connor’s mum Bernie might have been missing for three years, providing an added layer of mystery, but she drives the narrative. This feels glorious because what we discover about her shows a strong, independent woman who has survived her struggles through her courage and love. Lila too, is depicted with absolute clarity and her strand of the story is every bit as engaging as Connor’s. I loved the romantic element of her story too. As Connor and Lila both deliver first person accounts, Hope Street feels intimate and compelling. These people resonate with the reader. Mike Gayle ensures we know them thoroughly and he makes us care about them completely. What I think works so brilliantly is the intensity of a smallish cast, but the breadth of character. There’s a hugely satisfying balance of good and bad people, of male and female characters and of the flaws and perfections they display. This story could realistically occur in any of our communities so that the reader is invested in the outcomes even without the emotional and heart-breaking reasons Connor has to want to remain in Hope Street.

Equally varied and impactful are the themes. There’s not only the range of relationships from work colleagues to lovers, or families to friends, but there’s insight into those who are socially different like Connor, with the responses from loyalty to betrayal, protection to exploitation that such individuals inspire in others. Concepts such as trust and belief, true friendship and grief, loss and belonging all meld into the most captivating narrative. There were several moments when Mike Gayle brought a tear to my eye and I ended the book feeling I had read something very special.

Through this lovely narrative Mike Gayle shows us, quite beautifully, that we all need to live on our own metaphorical Hope Street in order to thrive. I loved this story and cannot recommend it highly enough. 

About Mike Gayle

 

Mike Gayle was born and raised in Birmingham. After graduating from Salford University with a degree in Sociology, he moved to London to pursue a career in journalism and worked as a features editor and agony uncle. He has written for a variety of publications including The Sunday Times, the Guardian and Cosmopolitan. Mike became a full-time novelist in 1997 following the publication of his Sunday Times top ten bestseller My Legendary Girlfriend, which was hailed by the Independent as ‘full of belly laughs and painfully acute observations’, and by The Times as ‘a funny, frank account of a hopeless romantic’. Since then he has written sixteen novels, including The Man I Think I Know, selected as a World Book Night title, and Half A World Away, selected for the Richard and Judy Book Club. His books have been translated into more than thirty languages. In 2021, Mike was the recipient of the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Romantic Novelists’ Association. 

For more information, find Mike on Instagram or Facebook, visit his website or follow him on Twitter/X @mikegayle.

Once again I’m wishing I could read every book I’m offered or that drops into my post box as I love the sound of this latest one from John Ironmonger. I think once you’ve seen what John told me when we stayed in together, you’ll realise why!

Let’s find out more:

Staying in with John Ironmonger

Welcome to Linda’s Book Bag John. Thank you so much for agreeing to stay in with me.

Thank you so much for having me. And congratulations on a remarkable book blog. I’m a big fan.

That’s very kind of you. Tell me, which of your books have you brought along to share this evening and why have you chosen it? 

So I’ve brought The Wager and the Bear. It’s my new novel.

That’s a fabulous cover! What can we expect from an evening in with The Wager and the Bear?

Aha. Apart from a simply gorgeous cover by the amazing Ed Bettison, you should expect some drama, some romance, and a rollicking good yarn. And plenty of jeopardy too.

Sounds brilliant. Tell me more.

Two sworn enemies lost on a frozen ocean, marooned on an iceberg with a hungry polar bear. This isn’t your ordinary boy-meets-girl story. But it is a love story nonetheless, a story of loss, and resilience, and it’s a story I know readers will engage with.

Those sound universal themes. How is The Wager and the Bear being received by early readers?

‘This book is magical and gritty all at once. I love it,’ wrote Radio 4’s Anna Freeman. Essie Fox called it ‘a novel full of warmth, wit, and wisdom,’ and novelist Stephen May wrote, ‘The Wager and the Bear is a joy to read.’ 

You must be delighted by those comments! I understand it is a book that delves into the climate crisis. Can you tell us more about that?

Yes of course. This is a story that centres on a dangerous wager about our changing climate. Once you’ve read it, you may never look at the world in the same way again. That’s the pact you make with this book. It is the story of an eager young activist, Thomas Horsmith, and it takes us from a dangerous confrontation in a Cornish inn on the night of his twentieth birthday to a deadly outcome fifty years later.

The Wager and the Bear sounds both important and unsettling John.

It may shake your confidence in humanity’s willingness to fix our planet. I hope it does. It may make you anxious about the future we are building for our grandchildren. I hope it does this too. Shelley Harris, author of ‘Jubilee’ wrote, I was completely invested and utterly gripped. This is what good storytellers do in the face of the climate crisis: choreograph a dance between the vast and the tiny, between the global and the human.’ 

To be honest John, I think we may have left it too late to fix the planet!

The book is primarily set in Cornwall. Is this somewhere that is special for you?

My mother was a Cornish girl. She grew up in Mevagissey which is an ancient fishing port on the Atlantic coast. I grew up in Nairobi, but when I was a teenager, my parents moved back to Mevagissey to run the village shop and I had to reconcile my truculent teenage attitudes and my love of big cities and bright lights with this sleepy, strange seaside community. I hated it. And then suddenly I loved it. I wrote about it (or a village like it) in my novel Not Forgetting the Whale which became an international bestseller. It seemed like a good place to go back to for Thomas and his nemesis Monty. So, yes. Cornwall is always a special place for me. I close my eyes and I’m back there.

It’s such a beautiful part of the world.

What else have you brought along and why have you brought it?

I’ve brought along a snowman but I’m already beginning to wonder if this might have been a bad choice. Oh dear!

He does seem a little bit ‘damp’!

I can only apologise. He does seem to be dripping all over your carpet. I didn’t expect him to melt so fast. There is quite a lot of snow and ice in The Wager and the Bear so I thought if I brought Otto along it might be a light-hearted way to illustrate the rather obvious truth that snow and ice do melt rather quickly when it gets warm. I was hoping to use it to introduce the point that three quarters of a billion tonnes of ice melts from our planetary ice caps every single minute – equivalent to filling up Windermere three times a day. It was a silly idea and I’m so sorry.

I think you have made your point only too well!

Oops! There goes the carrot. I don’t suppose you have a mop. 

Never mind John. Shall we just take what’s left of him outside?

Excellent idea. And this could remind us that once the ice is gone, it’s gone. At least for a few million years.

Thank you John. That’s actually a really important point. Although next time you drop by, might I suggest that you bring a snow-globe? Thanks so much for staying in with me to chat all about The Wager and the Bear. I think it sounds wonderful.

Thank you Linda. Oh, and can I mention that The Wager and the Bear is out in paperback on 21st February?

You can indeed! In fact, I’ll just give Linda’s Book Bag readers a few more details:

The Wager and the Bear

When young idealist Tom publicly humiliates politician Monty in a Cornish pub, it sparks a simmering feud that cascades through their intertwined lives. The consequences of their argument, and the deadly wager they strike, will cascade down the decades. Years later, they find themselves a long way from St Piran onto a colossal iceberg drifting south away from Greenland, their only companion a starving polar bear.

A heart-stopping tale of anger, tragedy, and enduring love, cast against the long unfolding backdrop of climate catastrophe.

Published by Fly on the Wall on 21st February 2025, The Wager and the Bear is available for purchase here.

About John Ironmonger

John Ironmonger is a British novelist born in 1954, in Nairobi, Kenya. He studied Zoology at the University of Nottingham and later completed a PhD in environmental science at the University of Liverpool. Before becoming a full-time writer, he worked in healthcare computing and lectured at the University of Ilorin in Nigeria.

John’s debut novel, The Notable Brain of Maximilian Ponder, was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award in 2012. His other notable works include The Coincidence Authority and Not Forgetting the Whale (also known as The Whale at the End of the World), which became an international bestseller. His novels have been translated into multiple languages.

For further information, visit John’s website and follow him on Twitter/X @jwironmonger, or find John on Bluesky and Instagram.

I’m not quite sure how it happened, but today marks exactly ten years since I began blogging. What a decade it’s been and my goodness hasn’t the world changed for the worst since 2015? 

But throughout that decade books have been a constant presence and joy.  

Thank You

I cannot begin to thank all the authors, publicists and publishers who have trusted me with their books over the years. It really is an honour to receive books for review. I’m so grateful for every single one.

I’m not sure my postie is quite so grateful… the first full week of 2025 he brought me 22 books and has delivered 63 in January in total. Unfortunately, I’m unable to read ebooks as I have weird bendy sight that needs to flex pages – conflicting astigmatisms, -12.5 in my left eye with a tilted retinal disk, a tiny hole in the retina and macular pucker from an epiretinal membrane caused by PVD. Screens tend to be inflexible! Reading screens for more than a few pages gives me vertigo and nausea. It’s a great pity as I’d have room on my Kindle for more books than the house can accommodate. 

Sorry

I owe apologies to those who’ve sent books and are still waiting for me to get to them. I sometimes think blogging must be a road to Hell as it seems to be paved with good intentions. Sadly it transpires that my best intentions simply aren’t good enough in getting to review all the books I’ve promised to read. I think the longest anyone has waited so far is six years. Oops.

Regular Linda’s Book Bag visitors may have noticed fewer posts in recent months. On occasion, real life gets in the way. I used to read four or five books a week, but life has become somewhat challenging in the last 18 months and this has reduced considerably. If I say that in January alone this year we have already lost four friends and family, you’ll understand. I’ve also had to take on far fewer blog tours and guest slots as setting up posts still takes time. I know my fellow bloggers understand exactly what I mean!

Of course, there are times when blogging feels overwhelming. During Covid when I was receiving well over 200 emails a day with requests to feature on the blog I simply had to give up trying to respond. Even now I spend a lot of time not reading, but replying to emails – usually around 40-50 a day. I always try to share any books I’m sent on social media to say thank you and to bring them to the attention of other potential readers. As both my photography and typing skills are execrable, this takes quite a lot of time – about 20 minutes per book to take photographs, check publication dates, find publisher, publicist and author handles and then add the books to X, Threads, Instagram and Bluesky. The greatest number of unsolicited books I’ve received in one day is 31. 

 Opportunities

That aside, over the last ten years blogging has brought me so many opportunities. Not only have I received literally thousands of books, but I’ve made real life friends with authors, other bloggers and publicists. I’ve been involved in festivals like our local Deepings Literary Festival where I’ve interviewed and hosted many wonderful authors. I’ve been invited to more events than I can count, have been featured in magazines like Women’s Own and have even won awards for my blogging. 

One of the biggest joys has been being invited to review online for My Weekly (see here) and in print (and once or twice online here) for The People’s Friend. I’ve also been a judge in book awards for the Sunday Times – something that I’m doing again this year for the Bookbrunch Selfies and I have been lucky to take part in events like Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour where I was interviewed and Radio 4’s Book Club where I got the chance to ask questions of Rachel Joyce and Eimear McBride.

I’m approached a lot about accepting books for my magazine reviews. I thought I might clarify that process here. I can make suggestions for books to My Weekly, but the final say isn’t mine. I review 3 or 4 books on average a month for them. I have autonomy over The People’s Friend, but these books must be paperback releases and nothing too sweary, violent or upsetting. My deadline for The People’s Friend is two months before magazine publication, so I need to have received the book, read it and sent in my review very early. April’s choices are on their way to the magazine right now. I can only choose five books a month for The People’s Friend so I can’t accommodate all those I’m asked to consider. It feels such a privilege to be able to contribute to these two magazines. 

Stats

I rarely look at my blog stats but I think it’s interesting that my first (truly, truly dreadful) blog post back on 7th February 2015 has had six views in ten years and my review of my book of the year for 2024, Christ Whitaker’s All the Colours of the Dark, has had 18,849 views in 7 months as I write this post. 

So, it’s been an interesting and exciting decade of books and blogging. I might not have loved EVERY moment (after all, there are only so many fake Keanu Reeves, American generals and Elon Musks a person can block on social media), but I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

Giveaway

As a thank you to all those who’ve supported me over the last decade, I have a small giveaway, so please do enter. 

For your chance to win a £25 National Book Token or Bookshop.org voucher please click HERE.

Please note that I’ll need an email address to send the prize, but I promise not to share it with anyone else or to retain it after the end of the giveaway. 

Giveaway closes at UK 11.59PM on Thursday 13th February 2025.

PLEASE NOTE – should anyone ask you for personal details or money in relation to this, they are NOT me and should be ignored.