Catherine O'Flynn – författare

Catherine O'Flynn, author of the Man Booker prize winning What Was Lost offers a 'funny, moving, acutely observed story about family and loss' in The News Where You Are.Frank Allcroft, a regional TV news presenter, has just had a ratings boost. His puns, a website declares, makes him 'the unfunniest man on God's Earth'. Mortified colleagues wonder how he stands being a public joke.But Frank doesn't mind. As long as Andrea and Mo, his wife and eight-year-old daughter, are happy, who gives a stuff what others think? Besides, Frank has a couple of other matters on his mind.He has taken to investigating the death of Phil, his (actually quite funny) predecessor, killed in a mysterious hit and run six months ago. Also, he's telling Mo about the architect grandfather she never met by taking her to see vanished and soon-to-be-vanished buildings.Because Frank knows that it is between what we see and what we can't, what has gone and what's left behind, that the answers lie. . . Very funny, warm and moving, The New Where You Are is a story of family, friendship and trying to reconnect with the past before it is gone.'Under the wisecracking surface . . . surprisingly profound' The Times'A flow of laugh-out-loud satire' Independent on Sunday'Awesomely talented' Tatler'Seriously uplifting, hilarious. A funny, moving, acutely observed story about family and loss. A pleasurable, satisfying gem of a novel' Scotland on Sunday'A blend of Dickens and Alan Bennett. I loved it' Fay Weldon'A comic genius' Daily Mail Catherine O'Flynn was born in 1970 and raised in Birmingham, the youngest of six children. Her parents ran a sweet shop. She worked briefly in journalism, then at a series of shopping centres. She has also been a web editor, a postwoman and a mystery shopper.

Mr Lynch's Holiday is the charming and comic new novel by the bestselling and prize-winning author of What Was Lost and The News Where You Are, Catherine O'Flynn.'I'm looking forward to seeing you and Laura and getting my first taste of "abroad".' Eamonn Lynch stares at the letter announcing the imminent arrival of his father, Dermot. His first thought is: I'll make an excuse, I'll put him off. But it is too late. Dermot is already here, in southern Spain, and soon he'll discover that Eamonn lives in an unfinished building site; that Laura's left him; and that it'll be just the two of them, father and son, for two long, hot weeks.Dermot doesn't entirely recognise his son; how can he stay quite so long in bed? And where is Laura? Eamonn doesn't seem to know quite what to make of his father's arrival. On the other hand his neighbours - pushy and domineering Roger and Cheryl, smug but disillusioned property developers Becca and Ian - see in Dermot a respite from themselves. Swept up in the British expats' ceaseless barbecuing and bickering, both father and son slowly discover the truth about each other and the family past. But at the same time they uncover a shocking, unacknowledged secret at the heart of this defiant but beleaguered community.Mr Lynch's Holiday is a very funny and moving story about the clash of generations; about how families break apart and come together again; about how living "abroad" can feel less like a long holiday and more of a life sentence.'An awesomely talented writer' Jonathan Coe 'A tenderness and warmth seep through . . . an astute and thoughtful writer, and her warm take on the world is pleasing' Sunday Times on The News Where You Are 'Darkly funny' Independent on Sunday on The News Where You Are 'A comic genius . . . entertaining and often thoughtful' Daily Mail on The News Where You Are Catherine O'Flynn was born in 1970 and raised in Birmingham, the youngest of six children. Her parents ran a sweet shop. She worked briefly in journalism, then at a series of shopping centres. She has also been a web editor, a postwoman and a mystery shopper.

CHOSEN BY GAIL HONEYMAN ON BBC RADIO 4 A GOOD READ 'Sad, funny and full of charm - a delight' Gail Honeyman, author of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely FineLONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE AND THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTIONSHORTLISTED FOR THE GUARDIAN FIRST BOOK AWARDA lost little girl with her notebook and toy monkey appears on the CCTV screens of the Green Oaks shopping centre, evoking memories of junior detective Kate Meaney, missing for 20 years.Kurt, a security guard with a sleep disorder, and Lisa, a disenchanted deputy manager at Your Music, follow her through the centre's endless corridors - welcome relief from the tedium of their lives.But as this after-hours friendship grows in intensity, it brings new loss and new longing to light.

A stolen phone and an unruly dog; a buried lunchbox and an antique children's book. Unlikely young detectives Lori and Max must dig through layers of lies to solve two mysteries.