JANUARY 2021
Happy New Year!
Like many others I’m hoping 2021 is a better year for us all. The Corona virus has dominated our lives during 2020 and I’m looking forward to my double dose of vaccinations, an opportunity to meet up again with family and friends and a return to normality. Meanwhile I write this on the morning the Brexit transition period with the European Union has come to an end!
I kept busy during 2020 with the launch of the latest novel in the Teacher series, ‘Back to School’, and the completion of my next novel, ‘School Days’. However the lack of opportunity to do signings and talks has meant it has been quite a lonely time with few opportunities for interaction with others in spite of the occasional zoom event.
Meanwhile the Bantam Press edition of ‘Back to School’ has promoted lots of positive emails plus over 130 five-star reviews on the Amazon Books website. Many thanks to the huge number of readers who have been in touch to say how much they enjoyed stepping back in time to the sixties to when the young Jack Sheffield started out on his teaching career in a tough school in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The Corgi edition of this novel will be published on 14 January.
The new novel, ‘School Days’, will be published on 9 September 2021 and is another prequel set in 1976/77. The art work for the cover is terrific and you really have to admire the skill of the artist and the production team at Penguin Random House.
The current restrictions have also impacted on my long awaited Literary Lunch event at the prestigious Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall and this will no doubt be rescheduled for the coming year.
Prior to the current lockdown I visited the ISIS studio in Oxford to make an audio recording of ‘Back to School’. Also I’m still getting feedback on the successful zoom event following the invitation from the Open University to participate in an on line panel with my neighbour and best-selling author Carole Matthews. Also I did enjoy being a guest of the Milton Keynes Literary Festival for their on line event showcasing the terrific talent in this area. There were a number of creative writing competitions and poets and writers were given a platform to read their work with great success.
In the meantime it’s back to my desk, a final slice of Christmas cake and another year of writing.
So best wishes to you all, keep safe and happy reading,
Jack