Jojo Moyes’s Me Before You was such an extraordinary book that I couldn’t imagine how she’d ever write a follow-up. But then again, lead character Lou Clark was so immensely likeable that readers were desperate to find out how her life panned out after losing Will Traynor, the wheelchair bound city financier she cared for. So Jojo wrote a second novel about Lou, After You, and now there’s a third ...keep reading
One of my favourite jobs in recent years was being a judge for the Costa First Novel of the Year award. It was a huge honour to read scores of debut novels and help to whittle them down to a shortlist and then a winner. I love the fact that the Costa Book Awards celebrate the most outstanding and enjoyable books of the year across five categories – novel, first ...keep reading
Fans of Jojo Moyes (and I’m one of them) have been on tenterhooks for months, waiting for the publication of After You, the long-awaited sequel to the mega-selling Me Before You. Well, today is the big day and After You is out at last. Writing a follow-up to a book as loved as Me Before You is no mean feat but Jojo has accomplished it with style and aplomb. She ...keep reading
Reviewing a book by an author you’ve met in real life can be tricky. But actually, when the author is as talented as Jojo Moyes it’s not difficult at all. Over the past year Jojo has become one of our most successful novelists. Me Before You, her tear-jerking story of a hotshot city financier who becomes wheelchair-bound after an accident, was one of the top five paperbacks of 2012 and ...keep reading
A whole year has whizzed by since I reviewed the six books on the 2011 Romantic Novel of the Year shortlist. But I vividly remember reading The Last Letter from Your Lover by Jojo Moyes for the first time and predicting in a flash that it would win. Her heartrending tale of passion, adultery and lost love was “everything a romantic novel should be,” I wrote in my review, and ...keep reading