Writers' News - Tales of life

Tales of life

Intrepid doctor Emily Joy, aka Gail Haddock, wrote her first book, Green Oranges on Lion Mountain (Eye Books £6.99), about her desire to save the world, save her soul, save lives, lose weight and find a man. Her amazing experiences in Sierra Leone were all the motivation she needed to put pen to paper.

No longer ‘Bridget Jones with a scalpel’ she has moved on from rebels in Africa and is a GP and mother-of-three in the Highlands of Scotland, ‘too crushed by the minutiae of life to worry about saving the world, or anyone,’ she says.

Her publishers, Eye Books, have moved on too, from travel books to a more general ‘inspirational’ non-fiction. Eye’s Dan Hiscocks was ‘endlessly enthusiastic’ about Gail’s quirky take on life and Green Oranges’ tales of optimism triumphing over adversity, so the idea for a new series by ‘The Accidental Optimist’ was born.

‘It was obviously time for me to get a grip of my own chaotic life,’ laughs Gail, ‘reclaim my optimism and idealism and go in search of the meaning of life... well, small children allowing.’

The resulting book A Guide to Life (£7.99) is out now and Gail is working on a Guide to Temptation which is going to look at whether indulging in some alternative deadly sins might be the answer to giving up chocolate.

‘It’s been great fun,’ she says ‘and as an added bonus, all the research has been a real education.’

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