Second chance for The Second Life

I’m holding my breath as I write this, but the story of my journey to publication - itself a drama full of tension, conflict and heartbreak – is finally, I hope, set for a happy ending.

I’ve wanted to write a novel since the age of eight, so was thrilled when in 2024, my debut manuscript was picked up by an publishing company that championed a range of sophisticated women writers from around the world.

But then hints came that all was not right, growing ever stronger until finally, just weeks before my big publication day, the news arrived that Neem Tree Press was going into administration, apparently sucked down by the failing company Unbound.

Some authors were furious because they were owed money.

I was simply devastated.

I lost confidence in my work, and lost confidence that the novel I’d worked on for 15 years and had poured all my creativity into would ever see the light of day.

It was galling to have to fund my own limited print run to provide copies of the book to friends and family who had pre-ordered and who would otherwise have lost out.

It was galling to have to spend time and resources packing up and posting out individual copies of my book.

And it was galling seeing novels that frankly were no better than mine being published.

But once bitten, twice shy. So when my agent Viv Loves Film found a new publisher, I didn’t dare publicise it or take anything for granted.

But I still knew that I had an original and unique story to tell.

It’s now almost a year – a year minus 12 days, in fact – since that soul-destroying period of my life, but so much has happened that it feels like longer.

I’m thrilled that Dublin-based Poolbeg Press, which discovered and nurtured superstar writers Maeve Binchy and Marian Keyes, liked my novel and my pitch so much they snapped it up.

So the book that was With Love from the Afterlife is now back, with a different cover and a new title. And thanks to a brilliant editor, a few holes and inconsistencies that no one else had spotted have been fixed.

The new title, The Second Life of Anthony B, could hardly be more fitting for a novel that itself has been given a second chance.

The Second Life of Anthony B, due out on Wednesday 5 August, is now available to pre-order as an ebook or physical copy, from Amazon and Hive. It will be available to order from all good bookshops.

Now begins the hard work of publicising it.