Winner of the Specsavers National Book Awards 'New Writer of the Year' 2012.
Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2012.
This is one of those books that you can’t help but fall in love with. Experienced radio playwright but debut novelist Rachel Joyce has written a moving and poignant, yet comic, story with such affecting characters it’s hard to stop reading – rather like the journey the central character Harold takes. And it all starts with a simple letter… wonderful. One of the Richard and Judy Spring 2013 Book Club selections.
Listen to an audio extract by clicking on the orange arrow below.
When Harold Fry nips out one morning to post a letter, leaving his wife hovering upstairs, he has no idea that he is about to walk from one end of the country to the other. He has no hiking boots or map, let alone a compass, waterproof or mobile phone. All he knows is that he must keep walking to save someone else's life.
Rachel Joyce is the author of the Sunday Times and international bestsellers The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Perfect, The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy, and a collection of interlinked short stories, A Snow Garden & Other Stories. Her work has been translated into thirty-six languages. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book prize and longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Rachel was awarded the Specsavers National Book Awards ‘New Writer of the Year’ in December 2012 and shortlisted for the ‘UK Author of the Year’ 2014. Rachel has also written over twenty original afternoon plays and adaptations of the classics for BBC Radio 4, including all the Bronte novels. She moved to writing after a long career as an actor, performing leading roles for the RSC, the National Theatre and Cheek by Jowl..
