Louise Beech - Author
Louise Beech is an exceptional literary talent, whose debut novel How To Be Brave was a Guardian Readers' Choice for 2015. She regularly writes travel pieces for the Hull Daily Mail, where she was a columnist for ten years. Her short fiction has won the Glass Woman Prize, the Eric Hoffer Award for Prose, and the Aesthetica Creative Works competition, as well as shortlisting for the Bridport Prize twice and being published in a variety of UK magazines. Louise lives with her husband and children on the outskirts of Hull - the UK's 2017 City of Culture - and loves her job as a Front of House Usher at Hull Truck Theatre, where her first play was performed in 2012. She is also part of the Mums' Army on Lizzie and Carl's BBC Radio Humberside Breakfast Show.
Click here to read a Q&A with this author.
One of Our Books of the Year 2017 | October 2017 Book of the Month A beautiful, and heart-achingly touching read, step outside of yourself, and into Catherine’s world. A world where a slice of Catherine has been missing since she was nine years old. Set after the devastating Hull floods in 2007, a crisis helpline sits at the centre of the story. Catherine was a bewitching, intriguing, puzzle. As her missing memories began to unfurl, the tale weaved through time, unsettling and thoroughly provoking my thoughts. My heart both cried and soared as I read, Louise Beech writes with quiet, subtle, painful beauty. Her ability to create hope in loss, to reach into darkness and find flashes of light is magical. Memorable, sorrowful, fascinating and yet full of love, Maria In the Moon has possessed my thoughts and taken up residence in my soul - highly recommended. ~ Liz Robinson
An intriguing, moving, and absolutely captivating family drama. Bernadette has to face her fears and start to take back control of her life when she decides to leave her husband. However on the night she plans to tell him, the foster mum of a small vulnerable boy Bernadette has taken under her wing, urgently needs her help. Louise Beech uses a variety of methods to tell this story, each isolated yet linked, and perfectly placed. A book enters the tale, a book that offers information, an explanation, and is essential to the flow of the story. It’s the unexpected small offerings, that might at first seem insignificant, that really set this story on fire for me. As I was swept up, as the links started to weld together, as the story came to a vibrantly intense conclusion, I found goosebumps settling on my arms. ‘The Mountain in My Shoe’ is expressive yet subtle, heart-wrenching yet tender, and I found it to be an unexpectedly beautiful read. ~ Liz Robinson A 'Piece of Passion' from the publisher... 'It was an honour to publish Louise’s debut novel How To Be Brave, which was a Guardian Readers’ Pick for 2015 and included in ‘My Books of the Year’ on no fewer than 22 blogs. I think I vowed, about 20 percent of the way through reading that book for the first time, to publish whatever Louise wrote, and I haven’t changed my mind! Her writing is beautiful, her stories moving, heartbreaking and yet uplifting, her characters simply unforgettable. When I received the manuscript for The Mountain in My Shoe, I wondered if she could match her earlier success and capture me in the same way. Her debut was based on personal stories; this was something altogether different. Let’s just say that I laughed and cried reading her first draft, and was also chilled and completely drawn into an incredibly page-turning thriller. There were more than a few goose-bump moments! I realised that (perhaps by accident) she had written a psychological thriller, and it was as heart-wrenching as it was dark and twisty. I’ve never come across a writer like Louise, both as a reader and a publisher, and so many of her words, her images, her messages, her wonder stick in my mind. This is truly a book that you will never forget. You’ll be drawn into the lives of people whose lives aren’t working, be inspired, frightened, saddened and chilled, but you will, most of all, be a massive fan of this wonderful author. It’s outstanding.' ~ Karen Sullivan, Publisher, Orenda Books Click here to read a Q&A about this book.
One of Our Books of the Year 2017 | October 2017 Book of the Month A beautiful, and heart-achingly touching read, step outside of yourself, and into Catherine’s world. A world where a slice of Catherine has been missing since she was nine years old. Set after the devastating Hull floods in 2007, a crisis helpline sits at the centre of the story. Catherine was a bewitching, intriguing, puzzle. As her missing memories began to unfurl, the tale weaved through time, unsettling and thoroughly provoking my thoughts. My heart both cried and soared as I read, Louise Beech writes with quiet, subtle, painful beauty. Her ability to create hope in loss, to reach into darkness and find flashes of light is magical. Memorable, sorrowful, fascinating and yet full of love, Maria In the Moon has possessed my thoughts and taken up residence in my soul - highly recommended. ~ Liz Robinson
An intriguing, moving, and absolutely captivating family drama. Bernadette has to face her fears and start to take back control of her life when she decides to leave her husband. However on the night she plans to tell him, the foster mum of a small vulnerable boy Bernadette has taken under her wing, urgently needs her help. Louise Beech uses a variety of methods to tell this story, each isolated yet linked, and perfectly placed. A book enters the tale, a book that offers information, an explanation, and is essential to the flow of the story. It’s the unexpected small offerings, that might at first seem insignificant, that really set this story on fire for me. As I was swept up, as the links started to weld together, as the story came to a vibrantly intense conclusion, I found goosebumps settling on my arms. ‘The Mountain in My Shoe’ is expressive yet subtle, heart-wrenching yet tender, and I found it to be an unexpectedly beautiful read. ~ Liz Robinson A 'Piece of Passion' from the publisher... 'It was an honour to publish Louise’s debut novel How To Be Brave, which was a Guardian Readers’ Pick for 2015 and included in ‘My Books of the Year’ on no fewer than 22 blogs. I think I vowed, about 20 percent of the way through reading that book for the first time, to publish whatever Louise wrote, and I haven’t changed my mind! Her writing is beautiful, her stories moving, heartbreaking and yet uplifting, her characters simply unforgettable. When I received the manuscript for The Mountain in My Shoe, I wondered if she could match her earlier success and capture me in the same way. Her debut was based on personal stories; this was something altogether different. Let’s just say that I laughed and cried reading her first draft, and was also chilled and completely drawn into an incredibly page-turning thriller. There were more than a few goose-bump moments! I realised that (perhaps by accident) she had written a psychological thriller, and it was as heart-wrenching as it was dark and twisty. I’ve never come across a writer like Louise, both as a reader and a publisher, and so many of her words, her images, her messages, her wonder stick in my mind. This is truly a book that you will never forget. You’ll be drawn into the lives of people whose lives aren’t working, be inspired, frightened, saddened and chilled, but you will, most of all, be a massive fan of this wonderful author. It’s outstanding.' ~ Karen Sullivan, Publisher, Orenda Books Click here to read a Q&A about this book.
All the stories died that morning - until we found the one we'd always known. When nine-year-old Rose is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, Natalie must use her imagination to keep her daughter alive. They begin dreaming about and seeing a man in a brown suit who feels hauntingly familiar, a man who has something for them. Through the magic of storytelling, Natalie and Rose are transported to the Atlantic Ocean in 1943, to a lifeboat, where an ancestor survived for fifty days before being rescued. Poignant, beautifully written and tenderly told, How To Be Brave weaves together the contemporary story of a mother battling to save her child's life with an extraordinary true account of bravery and a fight for survival in the Second World War. A simply unforgettable debut that celebrates the power of words, the redemptive energy of a mother's love - and what it really means to be brave.