John Ironmonger – författare

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER'A gentle and uplifting tale of warding off apocalypse in a remote corner of Cornwall . . . charming' Financial Times'A tremendously enjoyable book' Independent on Sunday'Bloody brilliant' Liz Fenwick, author of The Cornish HouseIt all began with the whale.When a young man washes up on the sands of St Piran in Cornwall, it is clear to the villagers that this is not a regular day. What has brought him here? And what is the crisis only he understands, that threatens not only their community but all of civilisation?With a global pandemic on the horizon, and a whale lurking in the bay, the villagers of St Piran must band together to survive. Intimate, funny and heart-warming, John Ironmonger tells a compelling story about the important things that hold us together, and how hope can be found, even at the end of the world.'A warm-hearted book crammed with ideas . . . very, very good' Emerald Street'A compelling and unusual modern fable' Natasha Solomons, author of Mr Rosenblum's List'Beautiful, dark, uplifting' Kate Long, author of The Bad Mother's Handbook

SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA FIRST NOVEL AWARD'Maximilian Ponder is lying face up, dead, on the dining table in his own front room. This is something you really should know, right from the start. 'Max would also have wanted you to know that this is a Henri II style, French, walnut extending dining table, standing on solid turned legs with fretwork decor to the middle, also with ebony and sandalwood inlay, designed by the French furniture maker Nicolas Rastin and probably dating from around 1900 ...'Maximilian Ponder shut himself away for thirty years in an attempt to record every memory he ever had. Now he lies dead, surrounded by his magnum opus - The Catalogue - an exhaustive set of notebooks and journals that he hopes will form the map of one human mind. But before his friend Adam Last can call the police and inform them of Max's death, one rather gruesome task remains in order for Max's project to be complete. Interspersed with sections from The Catalogue, Adam tells the story of the man he knew - a man whose life changed dramatically the day he buried a dead labrador and fought a duel with his father. What emerges is both the story of a friendship, and also of a lifelong obsession, a quest to understand the human mind, memory and what constitutes a life.

For fans of THE UNLIKELY PILGRIMAGE OF HAROLD FRY, THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU, Mark Watson and Mark Haddon, here is a cleverly written mystery about fate, circumstance, destiny and coincidence from COSTA AWARD-shortlisted author, John Ironmonger. This quirky read is hard to put down and spans philosophy, conflict, relationships and romance.Thomas Post is an expert on coincidences. He's an authority. People come to see him, to ask him if he can explain strange events that have befallen them, and he can always explain these things away. We poor humans, he would say, have a tendency to make patterns out of random shapes, or to construct meaning from the random behaviour of the universe.But one day Thomas gets a visit from Azalea Lewis, and his world will never be the same again. For Azalea's coincidences seem to go off the scale. The lives of Thomas and Azalea become entwined, their destinies entangled. And now, with Azalea apparently dead in a foreign land, Thomas must reassemble the pieces of her life in search for the patterns that drove it. And that means he must try to unravel the coincidences that so afflicted her.

REMEMBER ME WHEN THE COMET COMES...On the day the comet came, a girl named Heloise was born. She would live a fine life, and inherit a fortune, but would meet a cruel, untimely death. Years later, strange dreams plague Katya Nemcová, a teenager burdened with a rare and curious gift. Memories come to Katya in her dreams - images and stories from a past that isn't her own. Are these ghosts real? And what of the memory she seems to have of Heloise's treasures, two centuries old? A novel that spans the history of Europe - from revolutionary France to the world wars, the Prague Spring, post Brexit Britain, and beyond - this is the irresistible, adventurous and affectionate story of a quite extraordinary woman, her exceptionally talented ancestors, and the curious memories they share.

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. This is a heart-stopping tale of anger, tragedy, and enduring love, cast against the long unfolding backdrop of an irreversible global crisis.

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. This is a heart-stopping tale of anger, tragedy, and enduring love, cast against the long unfolding backdrop of an irreversible global crisis.

'NOT ALL OF THIS IS TRUE. But some surely is. Most of it, I hope. Some of this tale is already on its way to becoming a legend, and who can really tell us where to draw the faint line that lies between legend and truth?’So begins this story of mankind’s closest relatives and Angel Restorick, a promising young gymnast from the tranquil Cornish fishing village of St Piran. When Angel is offered the opportunity to travel to a remote African island to study chimpanzee communication - not from a distance, but living with the apes in the treetops - she jumps at the opportunity.Slowly, Angel earns the chimps’ trust. She befriends the playful Milo, is accepted by the formidable Gaffa, and makes a place for herself among the other researchers on Samaki Island. But what will she do, and how will the chimps react, when the peace of the forest is disturbed by a group of illegal trophy hunters? This is a story of love and passion, of adventure and self discovery. Above all it is the story of a courageous young woman, fierce determination, and some extraordinary apes.A powerful new novel by John Ironmonger, a storyteller who gives a voice to those whose language we don’t understand.