They’ve changed. He hasn’t. And that’s the problem.
Alan Hope has spent his entire working life as a reporter for the local newspaper. Now in his early sixties, he’s the newsroom dinosaur, firmly out of touch with the TikTok generation. So when his editor insists he starts an online blog, Alan treats it like free therapy. It’s not like anyone is actually going to read it… right?
Wrong! Because the more Alan’s life unravels – both personally and professionally – the more his brutally honest posts explode in popularity. Suddenly, the tight-knit town of Bashford is reading Alan’s innermost thoughts…
His wife announces she no longer wants to grow old with him. His two grown children
are more like strangers. His colleagues are mortified at the oversharing. Then he’s forced to work with fellow reporter Lisa – young, ambitious and the epitomise of modern life.
Everything Alan is not.
But can someone from a completely different generation help Alan reconnect with his own family? And can Alan – a newspaper relic who now actually hates newspapers – help Lisa uncover the truth about her father?
Rob Harris grew up in the Forest of Dean but now lives in Oxfordshire with his wife
and daughter. For more than 15 years he worked on regional newspapers as a
journalist, sports editor and sub-editor and he is a former editor of The Forester
newspaper. He’s also been named Gloucestershire Media Sports Writer of the Year.
Rob’s first novel, The Absurd Life of Barry White, was published July 2024 by
Bloodhound Books. The sequel, Barry White is Still Absurd, came out in June 2025.
Rob previously wrote a memoir about the rare highs and frequent lows of being a
committed but ultimately frustrated village cricketer – called Won’t You Dance for Virat Kohli?, which was published in 2021 by Pitch.
He still knocks around on village cricket grounds, allegedly ‘for fun’.
My thoughts: This had quite a few funny moments as Alan, a formerly good reporter slowly loses the will to write for the local paper and starts writing a blog, that ends up derailing everything. He doesn’t think anyone is reading his thoughts, but really he has thousands of dedicated fans, especially in India, where the papers owners are based.
His editor is horrified at the airing of the papers secrets, the way Alan is so rude about their ultimate bosses, and tries to rein him in, but Alan won’t do as he’s told and as his personal life collapses and he moves into his shed, things go from bad to worse.
A bit silly, but very entertaining, this is one man’s breakdown that will take everyone with it. Even being assigned to teach new reporter Lisa how newspapers work won’t stop Alan unleashing his real opinions on his blog and bringing chaos to the quiet town of Bashford.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 