Local Mums recommend the best books from authors in our area
“I highly recommend Goodbye Morecambe. This is a breathtaking debut novel set in the author’s childhood seaside town of Morecambe. Skinhead Stanton is the unlikeliest of heroes but Stewart has you rooting for his escape and triumph with fragile schoolgirl Heather in this 80’s mash up of Bonnie and Clyde meets Trainspotting. The narrative and tension build like the swelling tide in Morecambe bay as we follow the lead characters on the run from the police and the terrifying violent criminals who are pursuing them. The desperate frenzy of escape and violent chain of events explode and cascade like the fairground rides on the seafront. Meanwhile Heather’s haunting grief ebbs and flows with the ever-present tide in the bay. Stanton’s destructive guilt for a past misdemeanour and ex-girlfriend Sally’s murderous jealously collide like the dodegem cars at the fairground. This violent backdrop is beautifully juxtaposed with the tender love story that develops between the main characters. Skillfully written with terrific pace and characterisation, I genuinely couldn’t put this book down. I can’t wait for the sequel to find out what happens to Stanton and Heather.”
Kathy McGuinness
“I recommend Goodbye Morecambe I love a book that is set in real time as the story develops. I was drawn into the fast pace of Stanton and Heather's story from their first meet at the end of a jetty in Morecambe, watching their relationship grow with the drama that follows bad boy Stanton and Heather seemingly being led astray. Stanton and Heather remind me of a young Bonnie and Clyde set in the 1980s. Read over two evenings, a definite page turner wanting to see what challenge faces them next on their journey in Goodbye Morecambe.”
Emma Hall
“I highly recommend Goodbye Morecambe. A great read. If you don't know Morecambe then by the end of this book you will feel like you know it well. The narrative bowls along nicely and never gets stodgy or plodding. The relationship between the two main characters is complex and uncertain and you care about them enough to want to find what happens to them next. Congratulations to the author on an impressive debut novel."
Jane King
“I recommend Goodbye Morecambe. An excellent read which drew me in from the very first page and I was vested in the story of Heather and Stanton throughout. A strong recommed from me. I look forward to the sequel!"
NW Jury
Goodbye Morecambe
Goodbye Morecambe is a simple love story set in a more innocent time, although one wrapped in barbed wire, held together by violence, and tied off with a bow made of jealousy.
At nineteen years old, Stanton has no money and no future. That all changes after a chance encounter with shy, vulnerable Heather.
Over the course of a few days in the summer of 1985, they form an unlikely bond, neither realising Stanton is trying to stay ahead of his past, while Heather is trying to run away from hers.
In a cat-and-mouse chase that amounting to life or death, they race desperately to make the last train out of town.
Miss it and they may never leave town at all.
Stanton’s innocent intervention on a jetty sets off a chain of events that have the power to change everything.
Forever.
Goodbye Morecambe
By Martin Stewart
Buy Goodbye Morecambe on Amazon
www.goodbyemorecambe.com
