I got to know about Matt Haig first on Twitter. I gathered he was famous (mostly) for a book called Reasons to Stay Alive. It gets praised all over the place and seems to have helped a lot of people. He talks a lot on Twitter about his own fragile mental health and I've found him to be witty, humane, and tough. I'll admit I hadn't read Reasons to Stay Alive - yet - despite the usual intentions.
His tweets recently included a lot of book launch stuff on his new release, How to Stop Time. I knew that it was a Big Book, getting lots of attention and again I planned to check it out. Then, mirabile dictu, it came to me and it can come to you too.
If you have been here before you know I lurk around BBC Radio as much as possible. I was very pleased to find last week that How to Stop Time been serialized for the Radio 4 series, Book at Bedtime. Here's a link to the web page where you can find it, at least for the next little while.
While we're on the subject, Book at Bedtime is just one chest of BBC riches that US listeners can now plunder, for free. There is sooo much more. If you get the BBC iPlayer app for your smartphone, they will all be laid out there before you and you need never be bored again.
But back to the book. This BBC version is abridged so you'll probably still want to buy a kindle version or a hard copy, but its a fine production of a wonderful story. I won't spoil the fun, but our hero is a man with a rare condition that has him aging at about one tenth the speed of the rest of us. The premise of the book is that these rare people have always been among us but hidden for their own protection.
It's been a long time since I came across a writer that pleased me so well. I think David Mitchell of Cloud Atlas fame was the last discovery that had me chattering away like this. So, you're welcome. Happy New Year. Thanks for stopping by.
