Will Dean’s The Last Thing to Burn (reviewed here) was one of my books of the year in 2021 so I could not have been happier when Jenny Platt invited me to participate in the blog tour for Will’s latest stand alone novel, First Born. I’m delighted to share my review of First Born today.

I previously reviewed one of Will’s Tuva Moodyson novels, Bad Apples here too.

Published by Hodder and Stoughton on 14th April 2022, First Born is available for pre-order through the links here.

First Born

THE LAST THING A TWIN EXPECTS IS TO BE ALONE …

Molly lives a quiet, contained life in London. Naturally risk averse, she gains comfort from security and structure. Every day the same.

Her identical twin Katie is her exact opposite: gregarious and spontaneous. They used to be inseparable, until Katie moved to New York a year ago. Molly still speaks to her daily without fail.

But when Molly learns that Katie has died suddenly in New York, she is thrown into unfamiliar territory. Katie is part of her DNA. As terrifying as it is, she must go there and find out what happened. As she tracks her twin’s last movements, cracks begin to emerge. Nothing is what it seems. And a web of deceit is closing around her.

Delivering the same intensity of pace and storytelling that made The Last Thing to Burn a word-of-mouth sensation, First Born will surprise, shock and enthral.

My Review of First Born

Molly’s twin sister Katie has died in New York.

I thoroughly enjoyed First Born because it’s brilliantly plotted, twisty and exciting. It’s one of those books that doesn’t let you put it down until you’ve devoured it completely. It’s also impossible to say anything more about the plot without spoilers!

The pace is fast and engaging so that just when the reader thinks they have the measure of events, Will Dean wrong foots them. There’s a bubbling undercurrent of menace and mis-trust that leaves the reader feeling uneasy and desperate to know the outcome of the narrative.

It’s difficult to identify quite why, but First Born couldn’t have been set anywhere better than New York. The descriptions of the city are sharp and authentic and I think the concepts that it’s a city that never sleeps, a place where people can be anonymous and a place where it’s possible to start again and reinvent yourself in the way Jimmy the street vendor has done for example, are presented perfectly here.

The characterisation is fascinating because First Born explores identity, jealousy, obsession and vulnerability with razor sharp perception. I loved the insight into the relationship between Molly and Katie. Molly’s peril obsessed OCD is both convincing and pitiful, in the true sense of the word, whilst simultaneously feeling astute and sensible so that the reader has empathy for her whilst being grateful they are not like her. This has the effect of drawing in the reader to the story and making them question their own behaviours and habits.

As well as the intriguing plot in First Born there are layers of interest that add depth and texture. The dark web, exploitation, fame, revenge, relationships from the sexual through the familial to the platonic, are all aspects that thrum through the story. As a result I found First Born completely fascinating as well as entertaining.

It’s tricky to review First Born without giving away too much about the plot, but First Born is a cracker of a book and I really recommend it.

About Will Dean

Will Dean grew up in the East Midlands and lived in nine different villages before the age of eighteen. His debut novel, Dark Pines, was selected for Zoe Ball’s Book Club, shortlisted for the Guardian Not the Booker prize and named a Daily Telegraph Book of the Year. The second Tuva Moodyson thriller, Red Snow, won ‘Best Independent Voice’ at the Amazon Publishing Readers’ Awards, 2019, and was longlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2020. The third novel, Black River, was longlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2021. Rights for the series have been sold in eight territories (France, Germany, Italy, Holland, Poland, Czech Republic, China and Turkey).

Will lives in Sweden where the Tuva Moodyson novels are set. TV Rights to Dark Pines have been optioned by Lionsgate, the producers of Mad Men, with plans for a multi-part series featuring Tuva Moodyson.

You can follow Will Dean on Twitter @willrdean, on Facebook, Instagram and on his YouTube Channel for further information.

There’s more with these other bloggers too:

Every time I read a fellow blogger’s review of a Tony Kent book they are all so positive that I know I’m really missing out as I haven’t had chance to read him for myself yet. As a result I decided it was time to ask Tony to stay in with me and tell me about his latest book himself. I’m thrilled he agreed to come along.

Staying in with Tony Kent

Welcome to Linda’s Book Bag Tony and thank you for agreeing to stay in with me.

No, thank you. Because while you’re staying in, for me this is OUT! Which I realise is quite pathetic, but our three-year old son Joseph is at that ‘look at me all night, I’m hilarious stage’. Which is nowhere near as entertaining as he thinks it is. So usually, I’m hiding upstairs in my office, writing or working on legal papers. Which makes THIS a big night! Now where are those cocktails!?!

We’ll get to the cocktails later, but before then tell me, which of your books have you brought along to share this evening and why have you chosen it?

I’ve chosen to bring along my latest thriller, No Way To Die, which is coming out in paperback next week; much cheaper than the hardback was so I can just about afford to bring a copy for us both!

I love a paperback! So tell me a bit more about No Way To Die.

No Way To Die is the fourth book in a series which – as a big Marvel and DC fan – I’ve shamelessly started to call ‘The Killer Intent Universe’ (my first book of course being Killer Intent).

The reason for this admittedly grandiose title is because, unlike Jack Reacher or Rebus or any of those series, not every book I write includes all of my main characters. But at the same time they are not complete standalones like, say, John Grisham. And nor are they a collection of separate, unconnected series as David Baldacci tends to do. Instead, I write about four or five main characters (the number keeps growing as I fall in love with new ones and can’t resist bringing them back…) who are all either closely or tangentially connected to one another. They share the same world. They share the same friends, mostly. But they don’t necessarily all share the same adventures. So, like when The Avengers go off on their own to be Thor or to be The Hulk, my characters can have a Dempsey book, a Devlin book, a Dempsey/Devlin book and so on. So you see…a universe!!

That sounds a brilliant concept. Who will we find in No Way To Die?

No Way To Die, then, is a Dempsey book through and through. With a nice sprinkling of Eden Grace – the Secret Service agent introduced in my last book, Power Play – on top. I wrote it during the pandemic when we were all in the strictest phase of the lockdown and it was a late replacement for the book I was supposed to be writing which was – believe it or not – a book about a weaponised virus being used to start a lethal pandemic in the United States! I decided against finishing that one, for reasons I’m sure I don’t need to explain.

Crikey. That’s quite understandable!

But I had a deadline and so I threw myself headlong into No Way To Die. And I have to say, I really feel that that urgency shows up on the page. It’s my fastest paced, most edge-of-your-seat book and I really feel I have my impending deadline to thank for making me put that pressure on the page.

No prevarication in writing No Way To Die then! How would you describe it?

Like all my books, No Way To Die is a twisty, emotional rollercoaster of an action thriller that features strong, realistic characters – both men and women – navigating a scary world. The action jumps between the good guys – Joe Dempsey and Eden Grace from the UN’s International Security Bureau, Special Agent Bambi O’Rourke from Homeland Security and Agent Nicki May from the Department of Justice – and the bad guys as they make their way up the east coast of America over the course of two days, with the bad guys always one step ahead and one step away from causing mass destruction.

That sounds really exciting. How has it been received so far?

The reviews have been great for this one, which I’m much happier about than I should probably admit. The Sunday Times called it a ‘pulsating action thriller’ and picked it as one of the Thrillers of the Month at the time of the hardback release, and the praise from some fellow writers has been humbling. Neil Lancaster – author of Dead Man’s Grave and The Blood Tide called it ‘an absolute belter of a book. Dempsey reminds me of an amalgam of 007 and OrphanX. A blistering, two-fisted thriller you won’t want to put down until you’re done’, Rob Parker – author of The Watchman and Far From The Tree said it was ‘a staggeringly enjoyable thriller… Astonishingly good – to the point of being utterly unmissable’ and even Adam Hamdy – author of Black 13 and Red Wolves – called it ‘a top-notch, edge of the seat thriller’. I know the reviews shouldn’t mean as much as they do, but I can’t help it; authors live in their heads when writing these books and it’s sometimes hard to keep perspective of what’s working and what isn’t. So great feedback is very, very important to us!

That’s quite an endorsement Tony. You should be delighted. 

What else can we expect from an evening in with Tony Kent?

The honest answer is almost certainly a sleeping house-guest! For me writing not my main job. I am actually a barrister specialising in criminal defence and my practice is focused very much on the ‘extremely serious’ end of the criminal spectrum; think murder, organised crime, seven-figure frauds, that sort of thing. It’s very much a full-time job and then some; the hours are extreme, so writing plays second fiddle a bit in terms of the time I can dedicate to it. That said, I produce a book a year at an average length of 120,000 to 130,000 words, so it isn’t that I don’t spend a lot of time at my desk, putting Dempsey and Devlin and co. through their paces. Add the two jobs together, then, and then throw in my young son Joseph and you’ve got a man who isn’t getting nearly enough sleep!

Good grief. If you just need to lie down for a bit I fully understand.

That answer won’t get me an invite back, however, so I’m going to give you the non-sleepy Tony version. And the answer from that guy – if I can remember him – is a proper dining experience! I absolutely love to cook and I make a pretty special array of cocktails, so your evening with Tony Kent will involve…let’s see…seared scallops with crumbled black pudding and caviar with a minted pea puree, followed by a personalised beef wellington with horseradish mash potatoes, steamed and sautéed tenderstem broccoli and – just to sound mega middle-class and alienate everyone from the council estate I grew up on – a good red wine jus. Then we’d finish with frozen berries and white chocolate sauce. And of course, a good wine selection for each course, with the whole thing washed down by margaritas and – for me – an ice cold vespa martini.

And having now promised all that, I’m suddenly starving!

Me too. But if that’s what you’re offering Tony, you can come again! What else have you brought along and why have you brought it?

I have bought along my compilation video of Muhammed Ali’s greatest ‘hits’, because it’s 1988 and you will obviously have a VHS in the house.

Funnily enough I do!

I spent much of my youth obsessively trying to be Muhammed Ali, the greatest heavyweight boxer – and one of the best men – to ever live. I credit boxing (and of course my parents) with having kept me on the straight and narrow in the rough world in which I grew up. Many of the people I knew from my early childhood went the wrong way in life, and that misdirection began when they were hanging around the streets at night, picking fights and committing petty crime.

While they were doing that, I spent my nights in the local boxing club, learning how to fight properly and dedicating myself to a sport that, for a long time, I hoped would be my life. My biggest hero then was Ali and my biggest hero now is the same guy. Of course I discovered as I grew that for all the dedication and hard work and obsession – and I had them all – there is only so far you can go without God-given talent. And I didn’t have it. I was better than most – I won most of my fights and I picked up titles and championships here and there, paced mainly on pure determination, an unnaturally hard head and a very big right hand – but I was never making it to the world title. But that didn’t matter. Boxing made me the man I am; it gave me the opportunities in life that led me to where I am today. It made me think that, like Ali proved, anything was possible.

Wow. You’ve had an interesting life and come a long way from boxer to writer.

It also helps me write a hell of a fight scene, but that’s another matter entirely!

And so it’s the Ali compilation for us, I’m afraid. And a long old lecture about what made him ‘The Greatest’!!

You’re actually preaching to the converted here Tony. I was a little bit in love with Ali and reference to him always makes me think of my much missed Dad as we’d watch his fights together.

Thanks so much for staying in with me to chat about No Way To Die Tony. I really must catch up with the whole The Killer Intent Universe. Now, I think you mentioned cocktails. You get mixing and I’ll give Linda’s Book Bag readers a few more details: 

No Way to Die

A deadly threat. A ghost from the past. And time is running out…

When traces of a radioactive material are found alongside a body in Key West, multiple federal agencies suddenly descend on the crime scene. This is not just an isolated murder: a domestic terrorist group is ready to bring the US government to its knees.

The threat hits close to home for Agent Joe Dempsey when he discovers a personal connection to the group. With his new team member, former Secret Service agent Eden Grace, Dempsey joins the race to track down the terrorists’ bomb before it’s too late. But when their mission falls apart, he is forced to turn to the most unlikely of allies: an old enemy he thought he had buried in his past.

Now, with time running out, they must find a way to work together to stop a madman from unleashing horrifying destruction across the country.

Already available in other formats, No Way To Die is published by Elliott and Thompson in paperback on 14th April and is available for purchase through the links here.

About Tony Kent

Tony Kent is a practising criminal barrister who draws on his legal experience to bring a striking authenticity to his thrillers: Killer Intent, Marked for Death, Power Play and now No Way To Die.

Ranked as a ‘leader in his field’ Tony has prosecuted and defended in the most serious trials during his twenty years at the Criminal Bar – specialising in murder, terrorism, corruption, kidnap and organised crime. His case history is filled with nationally reported trials and his practice has brought him into close professional contact with GCHQ, the Security Service and the Ministry of Defence. He has also defended in matters with an international element, involving agencies such as the FBI.

Tony also appears as a criminal justice expert on a number of TV shows, including Meet, Marry, Murder (on Prime and coming soon to Netflix), My Lover, My Killer (Netflix) and Kill Thy Neighbour (Channel 5). April will see the launch of a True Crime podcast with Tony and author and former police officer, Neil Lancaster – examining crime and criminal justice from the perspective of a defence barrister and a cop.

Prior to his legal career Tony represented England as a heavyweight boxer and won a host of national amateur titles.

He lives just outside of London with his wife, young son and dog.

For further information, visit Tony’s website, follow him on Twitter @TonyKent_Writes and find him on Instagram and Facebook.

Many, many moons ago, as part of my degree I studied slavery and emancipation in the USA as one of my minor options. Consequently I was intrigued when J. R. Rothstein approached me about his book recently published book The Alabama Black McGruders as it traces his own ancestry back to those times. Although I sadly don’t have time to read and review the book, I am pleased to be able to share an extract from it today. Please be aware that historical reference may be offensive to modern life and I have removed foot notes for ease of use on the blog.

Published by Redstone on 13th February 2022, The Alabama Black McGruders is available for purchase here.

The Alabama Black McGruders

The Alabama Black McGruders tells the story of Charles McGruder Sr. (1829 – 1900-c), his father Ned (1795 – 1853-c) and mother Mariah Magruder (1800 – 1880-c).

Charles, the enslaved black grandson of a white slave owner, Ninian O. Magruder (1744 – 1803) was born in Alabama on the plantation of his white aunt, Eleanor Magruder Wynne (1785 – 1849) in 1829.

Through a series of events, Charles, a carpenter, came to be sexually exploited and forced to sire a hundred children, including fifty-two sons, with numerous women.

During the Reconstruction era, Charles, his last wife Rachel Hill (1845-1933), and their children, received reparations from his white relative and enslaver, Osmun A. Wynne (1804 -1877).

Charles’ children established communal and business networks and institutions to support their families and communities. Today, the Alabama Black McGruders continue to impact the story of the United States in areas of culture, government, law, science, medicine, academia, and business. This is the story of their origins.

An Extract from The Alabama Black McGruders

Charles Forms Numerous Families & Becomes a Breeder of Enslaved People

It was in this time of success for the Williams—William A. Ferrell and William A. Wynne—that, according to Alabama Black McGruder family lore, Charles Magruder was exploited as a stud to breed enslaved people.

Charles’s exploitation was part of a larger effort by entrepreneurial enslavers and slave traders to breed human beings for forced labor in chattel slavery.

The prohibition of the importation of slaves from Africa after 1807 limited the supply of slaves in the United States. In the same period, the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 doubled the size of the new republic and opened up vast new territories to settlement. The invention of the cotton gin in the 1790s had enabled expanded cultivation and increased the demand for labor in cotton-producing areas. As a result of all these factors, the domestic slave market expanded rapidly in the early 19^th century. During this time, the terms “breeding slaves,” “childbearing women,” “breeding period,” and “too old to breed” became familiar. Planters in the Upper South—Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina—sold slaves in large numbers to the Deep South, including Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. At least a million enslaved people were trafficked from eastern states to the newer frontiers—some sold to slave traders, others forced to migrate with their owners. According to historian E. Franklin Frazier, in his book The Negro Family, “there were masters who, without any regard for the preferences of their slaves, mated their human chattel as they did their stock.” According to Alabama Black McGruder oral history, Charles Magruder was one of these “breeding slaves.”

According to Lucille B. Osborne, “Charles’s slave owner wanted him to have as many slave children as he possibly could so he could have more slaves, to have more money, so that he could keep the plantation going.” Charles also is reported to have been hired out as a breeder, sent from plantation to plantation in order to sire children.

Jeptha Choice, a non-related former enslaved person from Texas, was also wielded as a stud to ‘breed’ enslaved people. His experience may provide insight into the experiences of Charles Magruder. Jeptha stated the following:

The old Massa was mighty careful about the raisin’ of healthy nigger families and used us, strong, healthy young bucks to ‘stand’ the healthy, young gals. You see when you was young, they took care not to strain me, an’ I was a pretty good nigger, as handsome as a speckled pup, and I was much in demand for breedin’. You see in those days people seemed to know more about such things than they do now. If a young, scrawny nigger was found foolin’ ‘round the women, he was whyupped, and maybe sold.

Later on, we, good strong niggers was ‘lowed to marry, and the Massa and old Missus would fix the nigger and gal up in new clo’se and have the doin’s in the ‘Big House’. White folks would all gather round in a circle with the nigger and gal in the center. Then old Massa would lay a broom down on the floor in front of ‘em an’ tell ‘em to join hands and jump over the broom. That married ‘em for good.

When babies were bo’n, old nigger grannies handle’ most all them cases, but until they was about three years old, the children wan’t ‘lowed ‘round our regular living quarters, but were wet nursed by nigger women who did not work in the field and kept in separate quarters. In the evenin’, the mammies were let to see ‘em.

We was fed good and had lots of beef and hung meat and wild game. ‘Possum and sweet yams is mighty good . . . ‘Course sometime they was grief, too, when some of the niggers was sold. Iffen old Massa sold a nigger man that was married, he always tried to sell the wife to the same folks so they would not be separated. Children under twelve were thrown in. But sometimes a nigger would be sold to someone, and the woman to someone else; and then they’d be carryings-on. But they was so ‘fraid of getting whipped, or maybe killed, that they went peaceful-like—but mighty sorrowful. The children went with the mother . . . . I’ve been married eight times but haven’t got any legitimate children that I know of. I’ve got some children from “outside” women I’ve had to “stand” for, but I don’t know how many. You see, them old days was different from what it is now!

Another narrative, collected from an unrelated former enslaved person named Maggie Stenhouse, records that:

During slavery there were stockmen. They were weighed and tested. A man would rent the stockman and put him in a room with some young women he wanted to raise children from. Next morning when they come to let him out the man ask him what he done and he was so glad to get out. Them women nearly kill him. If he sa’d nothin’ th’y wouldn’t have to pay for him. Them women nearly kill him. Some of the slave owners rented these stockmen. They didn’t let them work in the field and they kept them fed up good.

The experiences of Luke Blackshear parallel those of Charles Magruder in many ways. According to a slave narrative conveyed in 1938 by his descendant, Ida Blackshear, Luke, too, was wielded as a stud to breed enslaved people:

Luke was six feet four inches tall and near two hundred fifty pounds in weight. He was what they called a double-jointed man. He was a mechanic—built houses, made keys, and did all other blacksmith work and shoemaking. He did anything in iron, wood or leather. Really he was an architect as well. He could take raw cowhide and make leather out of it and then make shoes out of the leather.

Luke was the father of fifty-six children and was known as the GIANT BREEDER.  He was bought and given to his young mistress in the same way you would give a mule or colt to a child …

Although he was a stock Negro, he was whipped and drove just like the other Negroes. All of the other Negroes were driven on the farm. He had to labor but he didn’t have to work with the other slaves on the farm unless there was no mechanical work to do. He was given better work because he was a skilled mechanic.

Once on the Blackshear place, they took all the fine looking boys and girls that was thirteen years old or older and put them in a big barn after they had stripped them naked. They used to strip them naked and put them in a big barn every Sunday and leave them there until Monday morning. Out of that came sixty babies.

They was too many babies to leave in the quarters for someone to take care of during the day. When the young mothers went to work, Blackshear had them take their babies with them to the field, and it was two or three miles from the house to the field. He didn’t want them to lose time walking backward and forward nursing. They built a long old trough like a great long old cradle and put all these babies in it every morning when the mother come out to the field. It was set at the end of the rows under a big old cottonwood tree.

When they were at the other end of the row, all at once a cloud no bigger than a small spot came up, and it grew fast, and it thundered and lightened as if the world were coming to an end, and the rain just came down in great sheets. And when it got so they could go to the other end of the field, that trough was filled with water and every baby in it was floating ‘round in the water drownded. They never got nary a lick of labor and nary a red penny for any one of them babies.

Cornelia Andrews, another unrelated formerly enslaved person from North Carolina, recounted the belief that her father may have been a breeding “stock nigger.” She states:

I ‘specks dat I doan know who my pappy wuz, maybe de stock nigger on de plantation. . . Yo’ knows deyain’t let no little runty nigger have no chilluns. Naw sir, deyain’t, dey operate on dem lakdey does de male hog so’s datdey can’t have no little runty chilluns.

According to Lucille Burden Osborne, Charles was considered a “valuable piece of property” and a prized slave by his owner. Additionally, because Charles was moved and rented from place to place, from plantation to plantation, he had to start a family anew in each one. Gwendolyn Hubbard reports that Charles had five different “legitimate” families during slavery. The names of just four of the women are known. Wilmar McGruder, however, asserts that only three of the wives were legitimate.

Between 1854 and 1859, William A. Ferrell managed to gain control of the black Magruder family, even after his remarriage to another woman, leaving Salina Ann Wynne enraged. The Alabama Black McGruder oral history indicates that during this period Charles cohabited with many unknown women on a variety of plantations in the region—the details of which are lost to history. Two significant relationships, however, did emerge from this time, both with women named Mary: Mary May and another Mary, for whom there are few details.

****

J.R. also shared a photograph of his great-great-great grandmother, Rachel Hill.

There is also a YouTube clip available to watch here about the family that was part of an ABC mini-documentary series.

About J. R. Rothstein

J.R. Rothstein is a real estate attorney, investor, and a Fulbright Scholar. He enjoys history, nature, good stories, and community work. He lives in New York City.

For further information, visit his website. You’ll also find J.R on Facebook.

When I began reviewing for My Weekly. a few months ago I little realised just how many wonderful books I’d have the privilege of reading. The latest of those books is The Book Share by Phaedra Patrick.

Published by Harper Collins’ imprint HQ today, 31st March 2022, The Book Share is available for purchase through the links here.

The Book Share

It’s never too late to start a new chapter…

The utterly charming and feel-good new novel from the bestselling author of The Secrets of Sunshine and The Library of Lost and Found.

Liv Green loves losing herself in a good book. But her everyday reality is less romantic, cleaning houses for people who barely give her the time of day. So when she lands a job housekeeping for her personal hero and mega-bestselling author Essie Starling, she can’t believe her luck.

When Essie dies unexpectedly, Liv is left with a life-changing last wish: to complete Essie’s final novel. To do so, change-averse Liv will have to step away from the fictitious worlds in her head, and into Essie’s shoes. As she begins to write, she uncovers a surprising connection between the two women – and a secret that will change Liv’s life forever…

Brimming with joy and packed with a sparkling cast of characters, The Book Share is a moving reminder that it’s never too late to re-write your own story – perfect for fans of All the Lonely People and The Authenticity Project.

My Review of The Book Share

My full review of The Book Share can be found on the My Weekly website here.

However, here I can say that The Book Share is warm hearted, engaging and thoroughly entertaining with a wonderful insight into a writer’s life and a hint of mystery that hooks the reader completely. I really enjoyed it.

Do visit My Weekly to read my full review here.

About Phaedra Patrick

Phaedra Patrick studied art and marketing and has worked as a stained glass artist, film festival organiser and communications manager. An award-winning short story writer, she now writes full time in Saddleworth where she lives with her family.

Her debut novel, The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper, was translated into over twenty languages worldwide and has been optioned by a major Hollywood film studio. Her second novel, Rise and Shine, Benedict Stone (named Wishes Under the Willow Tree in the UK), is also under option in the US as a TV movie. Her third novel is The Library of Lost and Found, and the fourth one is titled The Secrets of Love Story Bridge (The Secrets of Sunshine in the UK).

For further information, visit Phaedra’s website or follow her on Facebook, Twitter @phaedrapatrick and Instagram.

With so many books awaiting reading and authors in the queue for blog space, reblogs are a bit like unicorns here on Linda’s Book Bag. They don’t come along very often. It has to be a special book that makes a second appearance and this is exactly the case with The Heeding by Rob Cowen, illustrated by Nick Hayes. I adored The Heeding and it became one of my books of the year in 2021 so when lovely  Alison Menzies asked me if I’d like to be part of the blog tour I couldn’t refuse!

Available here, The Heeding is out today, 31st March 2022, in paperback from Elliott and Thompson.

The Heeding

The world changed in 2020. Gradually at first, then quickly and irreversibly, the patterns by which we once lived altered completely.

Across four seasons and a luminous series of poems and illustrations, Rob Cowen and Nick Hayes paint a picture of a year caught in the grip of history yet filled with revelatory perspectives close at hand. A sparrowhawk hunting in a back street; the moon over a town with a loved one’s hand held tight; butterflies massing in a high-summer yard – the everyday wonders and memories that shape a life and help us recall our own.

The Heeding leads us on a journey that takes its markers and signs from nature and a world filled with fear and pain but beauty and wonder too. Collecting birds, animals, trees and people together, it is a profound meditation to a time no one will forget.

At its heart, this is a book that helps us look again, to heed: to be attentive to this world we share, to grieve what’s lost and to hope for a better and brighter tomorrow.

My Reblogged Review of The Heeding

A collection of thirty-five poems with illustrations.

I’m slightly at a loss to know how to review The Heeding. I found it such an affecting book that I’m unsure any review I might attempt can do it justice.

Redolent of great literary traditions, Rob Cowen’s poems made me think of such luminaries as Gerard Manley Hopkins (especially The Windhover) of Thomas Hardy’s The Darkling Thrush, of Seamus Heaney, and of John Donne’s For Whom the Bell Tolls because the quality of the writing is so superb. And yet Rob Cowen builds on those literary traditions, techniques and allusions, and makes them fresh, modern and absolutely perfect for the year 2020 he is describing, through a richness of language that is breath-taking. There is nothing derivative here, but rather an absolutely personal, and simultaneously universal, exploration of our modern world. There’s no shying away from the events of 2020 with references, for example, to the Black Lives Matter movement, through social distancing and the national interest in gardening, to the impact of the pandemic on South Asian people. I thought The Heeding was exceptional because reading it helped me make sense of the year we’ve lived through.

There are so many images and motifs of death whether they occur through Covid, war, nature or accident that The Heeding ought to be a depressing collection but it is far from it. Rob Cowen explores death’s effect by ultimately uplifting the reader, reminding them of human connection, of nature’s fortitude and of how we can endure even in the most difficult of times. His poetry illustrates how we can heed the world around us in the three ways outlined at the beginning of the collection; by observation, by taking care and by protecting. The Heeding isn’t simply a collection of wonderfully evocative poems, but it is a guide to readers on how to reconnect with the natural world, with our emotions and to be more mindful and observant. I felt that in reading The Heeding I’d been given the gift of relearning simply how to be, that I had lost over 2020.

A whole gamut of emotion underpins every single syllable so that each poem in The Heeding is an affecting reading experience. Rob Cowen presents rage, anger, relief, grief, despair, joy and hope in a beautifully written maelstrom I found mesmerising. For example, the last line of The Lovers made me chuckle aloud and the final line of Last Breaths made me weep but I was totally undone by Pharmacy Cake. Ironically, because each of those poems has humans at its heart, it was the iterative motif of nature in so many of the other poems that I found so effective. I loved the innovative compound adjectives such as those in Starling. I loved the sometimes tricky punctuation that exemplified the poet’s problematic feelings. I loved the italicised speech that made me hear the voices. The Heeding rewards rereading time after time because so much thought has gone in to the selection of each beautifully crafted phrase that there is new meaning to be found each time. Quite frankly I am astounded by Rob Cowen’s writing.

Aside from the incredible quality of Rob Cowen’s writing, Nick Hayes’ stark impactful black and white illustrations bring the whole collection in The Heeding into sharp focus. The images enhance the reader’s understanding and deepen the enjoyment in, and appreciation of, the poems. Because the pictures have a traditional woodcut appearance they also deepen the sense of value in this collection, giving the impression that life and skill can persist even in the darkest of times. The pictures manage to be both brooding and dramatic whilst also feeling sensitive and tender.

Searing, profound and visceral, The Heeding is an important, raw and moving collection I won’t forget or be parted from. I absolutely adored it. It’s one of my books of the year.

About Rob Cowen

Rob Cowen is an award-winning writer, hailed as one of the UK’s most original voices on nature and place. His book, Common Ground (PRH; 2015) was shortlisted for the Portico, Richard Jefferies Society and Wainwright Prizes and voted one of the nation’s favourite nature books on BBC Winterwatch. His poems have featured on Caught By The River and in Letters to the Earth (Harper Collins). He lives in North Yorkshire.

You can follow Rob on Twitter @robbiecowen and find out more on his website. You’ll also find Rob on Instagram.

About Nick Hayes

Nick Hayes is a writer, illustrator and print-maker. He is the author of the Sunday Times bestseller, The Book of Trespass (Bloomsbury; 2020). He has published graphic novels with Jonathan Cape and worked for many renowned titles. He has exhibited across the country, including at the Hayward Gallery. He lives on the Kennet and Avon canal.

You can follow Nick on Twitter @nickhayesillus1 and find him on Instagram. You’ll find examples of his illustrations in his online shop.

There’s more with these other bloggers too:

Thanks to the wonderful Caitlin Raynor, I’ve had Peach Blossom Spring by Melissa Fu sitting on my TBR since July 2021 so I’m thrilled finally to be able to share my review. My thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for inviting me to take part in this blog tour.

Published by Headline imprint Wildfire on 17th March 2022, Peach Blossom Spring is available for purchase through the links here.

Peach Blossom Spring

With every misfortune there is a blessing and within every blessing, the seeds of misfortune, and so it goes on, until the end of time.

It is 1938 in China, and the Japanese are advancing. A young mother, Meilin, is forced to flee her burning city with here four-year-old son, Renshu, and embark on an epic journey across China. For comfort, they turn to their most treasured possession – a beautifully illustrated hand scroll. Its ancient fables offer solace and wisdom as they travel through their ravaged country, seeking refuge.

Years later, Renshu has settled in America as Henry Dao. His daughter is desperate to understand her heritage, but he refuses to talk about his childhood. How can he keep his family safe in this new land when the weight of his history threatens to drag them down?

Spanning continents and generations, Peach Blossom Spring is a bold and moving look at the history of modern China, told through the story of one family. It’s about the power of our past, the hope for a better future, and the search for a place to call home.

My Review of Peach Blossom Spring

War is coming to China.

Peach Blossom Spring is a sumptuous, mesmerising book that I loved unreservedly.

The first half of the story is a heartbreaking reflection of man’s inhumanity to man, that is being acted out in modern day Europe even as I read about 1930s China and Japan. What Melissa Fu achieves so flawlessly is to translate the macrocosm of international events into the microcosm of individual lives in a way that hits the reader with emotional force right in their very soul. As a result, Peach Blossom Spring is at once historical, modern and, I fear, prescient. I couldn’t tear myself away.

Reading Melissa Fu’s exquisite prose is to be transported back in time with Meilin and Renshu and to be immersed in the story through assiduously researched historical detail. The use of the senses, the glorious descriptions, and the perfectly wrought relationships all combine into a wonderful, wonderful story so that I felt the narrative rather than simply read it.

I thought the characterisation was pitch perfect. Henry’s transition from being Renshu, Melin’s bravery and stoicism, Lily’s search for identity and the depiction of even the most minor characters feels vivid and real. I came to know these people every bit as much as I know people in real life.

Alongside the epic sweep of the plot are themes that reflect humanity in all its guises. Melissa Fu explores what it means to be fractured from your cultural identity. She considers what makes us who we are, what the nature of family really means and how we can carry or set down the burden of the past as we live in the present. Peach Blossom Spring unrolls just as beautifully as the scroll Meilin owns.

I absolutely adored Peach Blossom Spring. I found it moving, engrossing and completely captivating. I feel it will resonate with me for a very long time. It’s quite wonderful.

About Melissa Fu

Melissa Fu grew up in Northern New Mexico and now lives near Cambridge, UK, with her husband and children. With academic backgrounds in physics and English, she has worked in education as a teacher, curriculum developer, and consultant. Melissa was the regional winner of the Words and Women 2016 Prose Competition and was a 2017 Apprentice with the London-based Word Factory.

Her work appears in several publications including The Lonely Crowd, International Literature Showcase, Bare Fiction, Wasafiri Online, and The Willowherb Review. In 2019, her debut poetry pamphlet, Falling Outside Eden, was published by the Hedgehog Poetry Press. In 2018/2019, Melissa received an Arts Council England, Developing Your Creative Practice grant and was the David TK Wong Fellow at the University of East Anglia.

Peach Blossom Spring is her first novel.

For further information follow Melissa visit her website and find her on Instagram. There’s more with these other bloggers too:

It’s a real pleasure to present my latest review for My Weekly. Today I’m sharing my thoughts about Welcome to Your Life by Bethany Rutter.

Published by Harper Collins on 31st March 2022, Welcome to Your Life is available for purchase through the links here.

Welcome to Your Life

This is a love story…

Serena Mills should be at her wedding. But she’s not.

Instead, she’s eating an ice cream sundae and drinking an obscenely large glass of wine in a Harvester off the M25.

Everyone thinks she’s gone mad.

She’s left the man everyone told her she was ‘so lucky’ to find – because Serena wants to find love. Real love. A love she deserves – not one she should just feel grateful for.

So, she escapes to the big city and sets herself a challenge: 52 weeks. 52 dates. 52 chances to find love. It should be easy, right?

A story about love, forging your own path, and falling head over heels – with yourself.

My Review of Welcome to Your Life

My full review of Welcome to Your Life can be found on the My Weekly website here.

However, here I can say that Welcome to Your Life is an uplifting, entertaining and engaging insight into what it means to be a modern twenty something learning to accept themselves.

Do visit My Weekly to read my full review here.

About Bethany Rutter

Bethany is a writer, podcaster and jewellery maker. She writes books about women, bodies and clothes. She lives in Southeast London.

For further information, follow Bethany on Twitter @bethanyrutter, visit her website or find her on Instagram.

Hannah Gold’s The Last Bear was one of my books of the year in 2021. You can read my review here. I absolutely adored The Last Bear so imagine my pleasure when a beautiful copy of Hannah’s second book The Lost Whale arrived thanks to Tina Mories at Harper Collins Children’s Books. I have a huge TBR but The Lost Whale zipped straight to the top and I’m delighted to share my review today, especially as I found myself quoted within its pages!

Published by Harper Collins Children’s Books on 31st March 2022 The Last Whale is available for purchase through the links here.

The Lost Whale

The Lost Whale is the enchanting second novel from the author of The Last Bear: the bestselling debut hardback of 2021 and The Times Children’s Book of the Week, shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize and the British Book Awards 2022 and winner of the Blue Peter Award

‘Unforgettable highly accomplished animal adventure about the connection between a boy and a whale, with strong ecological themes’ The Bookseller, Editor’s Choice

What if you could communicate with a whale?

Rio has been sent to live with a grandmother he barely knows in California, while his mum is in hospital back home. Alone and adrift, the only thing that makes him smile is joining his new friend Marina on her dad’s whale watching trips. That is until an incredible encounter with White Beak, a gentle giant of the sea changes everything. But when White Beak goes missing, Rio must set out on a desperate quest to find his whale and somehow save his mum.

Dive into this incredible story about the connection between a boy and a whale and the bond that sets them both free.

Perfect for readers of 8+, beautifully illustrated throughout by Levi Pinfold – winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal and illustrator of Harry Potter 20th anniversary edition covers.

My Review of The Lost Whale

Rio is staying with his grand mother in California.

As Hannah Gold’s The Last Bear was one of the best books I read last year and has been busy scooping up all kinds of awards, I had very high expectations for The Lost Whale. It did not meet those expectations, but rather surpassed them completely. Hannah Gold really does have sublime magic in her writing that is completely mesmerising.

The story is gripping, with the excitement of tracking whales romping along. However, there’s so much more here too. The Lost Whale is so imbued with emotion I think I probably sobbed through the entire second half. Rio’s narrative isn’t just about finding a lost whale, it’s about finding himself too. Hannah Gold presents to perfection the role of a child supporting a parent suffering from mental health problems so that there’s someone for other children to relate to in the story alongside a hugely important message that they are not to blame for their parent’s illness, nor are they responsible for making that parent better.

Rio’s prickly personality and less than perfect behaviour at times helps youngsters understand that sometimes our words and actions are masking our true feelings. His friendship with Marina, his love for his mother and his gradual understanding of his grand mother are all presented to perfection, so that The Lost Whale becomes both heart-breaking and uplifting. Without a trace of cloying sentimentality, Hannah Gold presents emotion with clarity and reality in a supportive and helpful manner, making her books essential reading for all – children and adults alike.

There are crucial environmental aspects to the story that are so sensitively woven into the narrative that the reader learns from Rio’s adventure without even realising. There’s nothing aggressive or patronising in Hannah Gold’s approach and, consequently, finding the ways readers can have a beneficial effect on their environment is all the more impactful. Add in a beautiful, honest, Author’s Note to children, websites, advice and contacts at the end of the book and The Lost Whale become an essential addition to any home or classroom.

It’s impossible to review The Lost Whale without reference to the utterly outstanding illustrations from Levi Pinfold that pepper the text, bringing the narrative to life and engaging even the most reluctant of readers. There’s an emotional quality that draws in the reader and adds such depth and allure.

I fear I haven’t done justice to The Last Whale. Should you take a dictionary of superlatives I think they could all apply to this engaging, moving and enthralling book. The Lost Whale is utterly magnificent and the world is a better, kinder, place with this story in it. I could not have loved it more.

About Hannah Gold

Hannah Gold worked in the film and magazine industries before taking time out to pursue her dream of writing. She lives in Lincolnshire with her tortoise, her cat and her husband.

For more information, visit Hannah’s website, or you can follow her on Twitter @HGold_author, or find her on Facebook and Instagram.

I was devastated not to be able to read today’s featured book as it sounds fabulous and I’ve seen some wonderful reviews for it. Sadly my TBR simply couldn’t accommodate it.

However, I’m thrilled that PN Johnson has agreed to stay in with to chat all about his debut. Let’s see what he has to say:

Staying in with PN Johnson

Welcome to Linda’s Book Bag Phil.

Thank you for inviting me! It’s terrific to be here.

Thank you for agreeing to stay in with me. Tell me, which of your books have you brought along to share this evening and why have you chosen it?

I’ve brought my debut, Killer in the Crowd. It’s a murder mystery thriller which I’m hoping you’ll absolutely love!

What can we expect from an evening in with Killer in the Crowd?

Music, warmth and a great read, I hope! Killer in the Crowd is a story I’ve wanted to tell since I worked on a University Entertainments committee as a student. Although it’s set today, it takes us back, behind the scenes to reveal secrets from the early 80’s punk scene.

Oo. Just the time I was at university and seeing punk bands. Tell me more! 

It’s a fast moving action thriller which offers escapism, entertainment and excitement. I hope readers will really fall for my protagonist, Cath; she’s an ordinary teacher with an extraordinary secret – her mum was an infamous punk princess, who vanished when Cath was just seven years old. Cath reforms her mum’s old band, with four former punks now heading towards their sixties, determined to rekindle their youth and reveal the truth about what happened to Cath’s mum. It’s a tale of passion, determination and discovery.

I’m all for characters in their sixties Phil!

This extract is from the opening night of the tour, when this ordinary girl goes from teacher to star. We join Cath waiting to perform with Décolleté. Dressed as her missing mother, Cath’s hoping to elicit information from fans to find the truth about what happened to the infamous and much loved Betzy Blac:

I wanted to hug them all for getting me this far, and I knew I couldn’t let them down, despite feeling a little lost without Trav, my talisman and biggest fan. I knew he would have been there if he could. Well-wishers had sent messages, as had our new management, but they just flowed over me. I was concentrating on getting it right. I had one go, one throw of the dice: it was now or never. I had to be as good, if not better, than I’d been at the try-out gig in London, and this was the start of a tour, the opening night. It had to be a success.

The crowd was piling in and the house music was playing. The bar queues were growing and I sneaked a look around the curtain in the wings. A security guy checked me out and then nodded as I craned my neck to see the people who’d actually paid to see me. They were a wide range from old fans to students whose parents might have been Décolleté fans themselves. There were even some families, couples with teenaged children. I took a deep breath and went back into the dressing room, my confidence slipping.

The hour before we went on felt like an age. I kept going over the set list in my mind and wishing we’d had even more rehearsals, but it was like sitting an exam: there could always have been more time spent revising. I was testing myself—what was the second verse of Two Lovers in One Night? No, I couldn’t remember, but I kept telling myself it would all come back.

Steve Hewitt, the tour manager, looked in and smiled. He’d seen it before. “You’ll be fine. Believe it! Okay, stage time. Have fun, girls. Give them a taste of heaven.”

He muttered something into a mic on a headset and motioned to us to go on.

We moved silently into the wings and waited, unseen by the expectant crowd. Suzi patted me on the back and whispered: “Go Cath: be Betzy!”

I gave her a smile; for all her bravado, I could tell she was nervous too. I was here, in Mum’s place, about to lead her band through the set list of singles she’d taken to the top more than thirty years before—the outrageous, pioneering, punk princess rock chick that was Betzy Blac. She’d been praised by one generation and despised by another, even including her own mother. Her screaming sensuality had demanded to be heard, and demanded a place in music history. Now she was a legend reborn, alive in me: the daughter she never saw grow up.

It was time. The house music stopped and the lights went out. The expectation came to boiling point, the crowd started to clap and chant. It became a torrent and then a roar. As I walked forward my make-up hardened in the almost instant heat as the lights burst on and flooded the stage. I was feeling almost naked before this image-hungry crowd, hundreds of eyes on me as phone cameras flashed and I fed the online frenzy.

To the sound of rapturous shrieks and applause I tilted my head back and waited for the follow spot to close in on my face, the rest of the stage going dark until I screamed the magic words: “Oi scumbags! The bitches are back! We’re Décolleté, and this, this is for you.

Suzi and the band took their cue, just as they had with Mum all those years ago. Décolleté were alive, and full of fire: their fingers less nimble, their bodies less taut, but their passion still as strong. There was a split second of silence before Suzi shrieked and jumped into the air, her hands hitting the strings of her red Fender guitar. The assault on the ears of those in front of us began. Speakers flexed in cabinets, spewing airborne emotion at the speed of sound. The opening power chords screamed out. Cassie’s desperate drums demanded to be heard. Heads shook and waved in front of me, people jumped and cheered. The lights burst on and off like a supernova as I scanned the heaving crowd.

Colours changed, from deep reds and cool blues to brilliant white and everything in between, darting in and out of the smoke billowing on to the stage. The stage crew followed the script to the letter. Fans were raising their hands, cheering and calling my mother’s name, wanting me to be her, reborn, to glimpse what once was. And all the time I wondered: was the killer out there? Watching, waiting, wanting to end the show once and for all?

While I played Betzy Blac on stage, Mum was somehow still beside me, somehow cheating death. There were tears in my eyes and pain in my throat, but I sang, screamed and thrust my way through her raw, uncompromising, love-hungry lyrics.

Song rolled into song and the lighting and stage moves worked well. I hadn’t realised how much I’d absorbed during those intense rehearsals in London. The crowd were loving it and when I took a moment to appeal for information, as I’d done at our first gig, Mum’s face appeared behind me with the number the police had provided. The crowd clapped as I asked them to help me find my mum and Raven’s killer, then the lights dropped, leaving just a follow spot on Mum’s face and the number.

Suzi played an elongated intro into Raindance and the crowd erupted as the lights came back up. As I sang this international best-selling love song, I thought of Trav still in the States as I sang the last line: “So the storm tried to wash our love away, but we swayed together throughout the pain, and you and I’ll dance forever, in the falling rain.”

The audience joined in and carried on after I’d finished, wanting to reprise the chorus, but it was time to press on.

“Okay, let’s turn it up. Remember this one? Hot Lips, Cold Heart!” I shrieked, and the band took their cue. Adrenalin surged as we performed the set list. The encores were welcomed as Mum’s hits were blasted out while camera phones flashed and arms waved.

We came off stage after the second encore with the crowd still banging their feet on the floor and clapping loudly, chanting “Décolleté!” over and over again. But we’d had enough, we were exhausted. As I walked back to the dressing room a warm glow spread through me. Yes! I’d got through it. I hadn’t frozen, forgotten the lyrics or faltered. I’d managed to play my mum with her band to her audience and they’d loved it.

Wow. I loved that Phil. 

Phew! And there’s so much to come. My stories are for rainy days and lonely nights, sunny beaches and poolside cafes. They’re for anyone who enjoys great locations and gripping tales, with protagonists you want to fall for, laugh with and cry for, and… there’s a Hollywood ending waiting to be revealed!

Sounds brilliant. How is Killer in the Crowd being received?

I was lucky enough to have two great main reviewers. Music legend Steve Harley from Cockney Rebel, a truly great artist, said it was: “Utterly compelling, with an ending that comes like a bolt from the blue.” Nick Crane, TV presenter (Coast) and travel writer, said it was: “A real escapist page-turner with plenty of plot twists, oodles of drama and a compelling cast. Terrific.”  Another reviewer said it: “has it all! Readers will enjoy this curvy spine-tingler. I loved the finely woven romance in this novel.” – Jonann Sandvig. Yes, there is a “will they won’t they” love story hidden between the covers too!

You must be thrilled with those responses. I think I’d adore Killer in the Crowd.

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

Well, as Killer in the Crowd is about a famous female punk band reforming to solve a mystery, I thought you’d enjoy a post gig feast! I’ve been in a few dressing rooms after gigs and you’d be amazed what some bands want! From sandwiches to curries, crisps to cake, plus of course, booze and lots of water. So, here is a selection of post gig goodies  – pizza, curly sandwiches, a few bags of salt and vinegar crisps, and some Pinot Grigio, larger and fizzy water!

Any guest who brings food – even curled sandwiches is always welcome…

And, as music is my closest companion when I’m writing, I brought a playlist of songs from that era, and beyond, from Chrissie Hynde and the pretenders with Stand by You, Patti Smith – Because the Night, through to current artists including   The Summer Set, Blossoms and a little chilled Ibiza. My book is dedicated to musicians, because they give us the soundtrack of our lives. Music can save us from our darkest thoughts and add magic to our most precious moments of love.

You won’t mind if I add a little Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music too I hope!

One secret confession I’ll reveal here…I actually cried when I wrote the ending of Killer in the Crowd, they were tears of happiness. And I’m pleased to say, I’m told that I’m not the only one who’s read it and done that either, so be prepared for a warm fuzzy feeling and a big happy smile when you get to the encore. Hey, do start – the pizza’s are particularly good. I hope you enjoy Killer in the Crowd! And thanks so much for inviting me! It’s been fun.

It has! Thanks so much for staying in with me Phil. I think I’d love Killer in the Crowd. Now, yoy dish up that pizza and I’ll give Linda’s Book Bag readers a few more details:

Killer in the Crowd

Live music is in her blood, but as the death threats arrive, she fears there’s a killer in the crowd.

Cath Edgley is a normal schoolteacher at a normal high school… until she hears the shocking news that fading rock star Raven Rain has been murdered.

Because, to Cath, Raven Rain is more than just a picture on a magazine – he was also the ex-lover of her missing mother, Betzy Blac, lead singer of ’80s punk girl band, Décolleté. A woman who went missing over 30 years ago.

Warned by a string of mystery text messages to “trust no one”, Cath is inspired to solve the mystery of her mum’s disappearance, once and for all.

Cath finds herself thrust into the sordid underbelly of the ’80s music scene, when rock and roll played second fiddle to the sex and drugs.

Along the way, she also finds herself playing a new role: unwitting replacement lead singer for Décolleté on their first tour in over 30 years.

Can Cath find the killers before she becomes their next victim?

Are the superstars she encounters all that they seem?

And what exactly happened to the punk superstar, Betzy Blac?

If you love mystery thrillers with a musical twist, then you’ll love Killer in the Crowd, the debut novel from P N Johnson.

Published by Burning Chair on 31st March 2022, Killer in the Crowd is available for purchase here.

About PN Johnson

As a TV Newsreader, Reporter and Producer for both BBC East and ITV Anglia, Phil Johnson covered everything from tracking down criminals in Spain and going on high-octane police chases, to interviewing pop stars, politicians and celebrities. Phil Johnson was also the face and voice of Crimestoppers in the eastern region for many years and created the successful TV series: “999 Frontline”. Now living near Norwich, Phil loves music, sailing, and bringing exciting new characters with amazing stories to the page. His second novel is due out this summer and others are getting ready in the wings.

For further information, follow Phil on Twitter @PhilJohnson01.

My enormous thanks to Will Dady at Renard Press for inviting me to participate in the blog tour for The Green Indian Problem by Jade Leaf Willetts and for sending me a copy of the book in return for an honest review.

Published by Renard Press on 30th March 2022, The Green Indian Problem is available for purchase directly from the publisher as well as Bookshop.org, Waterstones and Blackwells.

The Green Indian Problem

Set in the valleys of South Wales at the tail end of Thatcher’s Britain, The Green Indian Problem is the story of Green, a seven year-old with intelligence beyond his years – an ordinary boy with an extraordinary problem: everyone thinks he’s a girl.

Green sets out to try and solve the mystery of his identity, but other issues keep cropping up – God, Father Christmas, cancer – and one day his best friend goes missing, leaving a rift in the community and even more unanswered questions. Dealing with deep themes of friendship, identity, child abuse and grief, The Green Indian Problem is, at heart, an all-too-real story of a young boy trying to find out why he’s not like the other boys in his class.

Longlisted for the Bridport Prize (in the Peggy Chapman-Andrews category)

My Review of The Green Indian Problem

Green (Jade) Waters is a seven year old boy trapped in a girl’s body.

The Green Indian Problem is outstanding. It would be difficult for me to have loved this book more and it has gone straight on my list of books of the year.

Green is a phenomenal creation. Trapped inside a female shell is a boy whose seven and a half year old voice sings from the page with love, empathy and an honesty that is heart breaking. The language Green uses is relatively simple in keeping with his age, and is so completely authentic that I wanted to climb into the pages, buy him a new bike and hug him tightly. His views on everything from God to bullies are convincing, insightful and endearing.

I found all the characters in The Green Indian Problem simply brilliant. Even the most minor character is real and convincing. Set against a backdrop of Thatcher’s Britain, Green may not understand all the socio-political references, but he conveys them in a way that the adult reader understands instantly. This is such skilled and affecting writing.

Jade Leaf Willetts has a perfect insight into human relationships so that he presents the full spectrum from the darkest, abusive ones to the most unselfish loving ones. As a result, The Green Indian Problem might be a relatively brief narrative, but it is steeped in wisdom. It’s quite difficult to convey the emotional impact of Green’s narrative, but I’d defy any reader to encounter his life and remain unchanged by the events he describes and the life he lives.

Alongside the theme of sexual identity are many other concepts such as acceptance, domestic abuse, death, criminality, family, friendships, relationships, education, depression, and so on. These may seem negative but in The Green Indian Problem, Jade Leaf Willetts presents reality through Green’s eyes with such tenderness and perception that the book is actually uplifting and positive whilst remaining realistic.

It is quite had to review this book without revealing events and outcomes. Whatever you do, don’t let The Green Indian Problem be a book that slips under the radar. It is sublime in content, emotion, characterisation and the writing craft. I absolutely adored it. The Green Indian Problem is totally wonderful.

About Jade Leaf Willetts

Jade Leaf Willetts is a writer from Llanbradach, a strange, beautiful village in South Wales. He writes about extraordinary characters in ordinary worlds and has a penchant for unreliable narrators. The Green Indian Problem, his first novel, was longlisted for the 2020 Bridport Prize in the Peggy Chapman-Andrews category. Jade’s poetry has been published by Empty Mirror, PoV Magazine and Unknown Press. His short story, ‘An Aversion to Popular Amusements’ was shortlisted for the inaugural Janus Literary Prize. He is currently working on a coming of age follow-up to The Green Indian Problem.

For further information, visit Jade’s website or follow him on Twitter @jade_leaf_w. You’ll also find Jade on Instagram.

There’s more with these other bloggers on Twitter:

And Instagram