In less than two weeks, on the 7th May, the most important day for the last and next five years will be on us. Yes, it’s the release of a whole host of YA and MG novels, including my very own Joe All Alone. Left home alone when his mum and her skeezy boyfriend fly off to Spain, Joe is at first delighted with his freedom, and makes friends with Asha across the hall in his block, who’s hiding out at her Grandfather’s flat. Together they explore Peckham and their own relationship. But then the money runs out and the net closes in – thrown by school bullies, and Dean’s dodgy mates – and Joe has to make the biggest decision of his life.
It’s not an easy read – it’s bleak and brutal in parts. But, as the writer Rhian Ivory points out in her review, it does offer some big, fat HOPE, which we can all use some of. Also biscuits, parakeets and a kiss. And, frankly, I am a huge fan of all of those.
If you want to know more about me, and the story behind Joe, the lovely Sophie Waters has blogged over at So Little Time For Books.
And then I urge you to vote – with your book-buying or -borrowing power. You know it’s the right thing to do…
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About Joanna Nadin
A former broadcast journalist and special adviser to the prime minister, since leaving politics I’ve written more than 80 books for children and adults, as well as speeches for politicians, and articles for newspapers and magazines like The Guardian, Red and The Amorist. I also lecture in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University, and hold a doctorate in young adult literature.
I’m a winner of the Fantastic Book Award and the Surrey Book Award, and have been shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, the Booktrust Best Book award and Queen of Teen among others, and twice nominated for the Carnegie Medal, for Everybody Hurts, and for Joe All Alone, which is now a BAFTA-winning and Emmy-nominated BBC TV series. I've also worked with Sir Chris Hoy on the Flying Fergus series and ghost-written Angry Birds under another name.
I like London, New York, Essex, tea, cake, Marmite, mint imperials, prom dresses, pubs, that bit in the West Wing where Donna tells Josh she wouldn’t stop for a red light if he was in an accident, junk shops, crisps, Cornwall, St Custard’s, Portuguese custard tarts, political geeks, pin-up swimsuits, the Regency, high heels, horses, old songs, my Grandma’s fur coat, vinyl, liner notes, the smell of old books, the feel of a velveteen monkey, Guinness, quiffs, putting my hand in a bin of chicken feed, the 1950s, burlesque, automata, fiddles, flaneuring, gigs in fields on warm summer nights, Bath, the bath.
In less than two weeks, on the 7th May, the most important day for the last and next five years will be on us. Yes, it’s the release of a whole host of YA and MG novels, including my very own Joe All Alone. Left home alone when his mum and her skeezy boyfriend fly off to Spain, Joe is at first delighted with his freedom, and makes friends with Asha across the hall in his block, who’s hiding out at her Grandfather’s flat. Together they explore Peckham and their own relationship. But then the money runs out and the net closes in – thrown by school bullies, and Dean’s dodgy mates – and Joe has to make the biggest decision of his life.
Joanna Nadin 