Mike Gayle was born and raised in Birmingham. After graduating from Salford University with a degree in Sociology, he moved to London to pursue a career in journalism and worked as a Features Editor and agony uncle. He has written for a variety of publications including The Sunday Times, the Guardian and Cosmopolitan.
Mike became a full time novelist in 1997 following the publication of his Sunday Times top ten bestseller My Legendary Girlfriend, which was hailed by the Independent as ‘full of belly laughs and painfully acute observations,’ and by The Times as ‘a funny, frank account of a hopeless romantic’. Since then he has written thirteen novels including Mr Commitment, Turning Thirty and The Man I Think I Know. His books have been translated into more than thirty languages.
By turns funny and moving, Half a World Away is a story that will stay with you long after you read its final page.Mike Gayle’s All the Lonely People was one of my absolute favourite reads of last year so when I saw this one on a Kindle deal earlier this year, I snapped it up. Like All the Lonely People, it’s a beautifully written and rather emotional book.Half a World Away is published by Hodder & Stoughton and available now in all formats.About the AuthorKerry Hayes is single mum, living on a tough south London estate. She provides for her son by cleaning houses she could never afford. Taken into care as a child, Kerry cannot forget her past.This book explores family in many forms and what it means. It makes you think about what really matters and what makes a family. The author writes so well about the importance of finding a sense of identity and a place to belong.
But it wasn’t always that way…
About the Book
When Kerry contacts Noah, the sibling she lost on the day they were torn apart as children, she sets in motion a chain of events that will change both of their lives forever.
Noah Martineau is a successful barrister with a beautiful wife, daughter and home in fashionable Primrose Hill. Adopted as a young child, Noah never looks back.
Oh my goodness Mike Gayle really does play with your emotions in this book and there are some really heart-breaking moments. However, despite that, it’s a really heart-warming book too about the love and support of family.
My Thoughts
You can find him online at mikegayle.co.uk and on Twitter @mikegayle.
Half a World Away is a story of two very different lives and brings up the question of opportunity and achievement. What kind of life could Kerry have had if she’d been given different opportunities in life? With her half brother Noah being happily married and a successful barrister and Kerry being a single mother making ends meet as a cleaner, their lives couldn’t be more different.
Strangers living worlds apart.
Strangers with nothing in common.
