Portobello Book Blog

I’m really pleased to be featuring some book post which arrived last week. Such a bright eye-catching cover. Thanks to Kelly at Love Books Tours and the author for providing a review copy of the book. The book is going ‘on tour’ on Instagram and blogs at the every end of this month so you will no doubt seeing it popping up in your social media then. I’m particularly looking forward to this one as a lot of it is written in Scots dialect.

About the book

Meet Maggie Munroe, a girl with the strength of Glasgow in her heart and a bunch of men trying to muscle their way into it. They won’t rest until only one has succeeded but, fortunately, she doesn’t suffer fools gladly and can see them coming a mile off – with the help of her intuition, her deid mammy and a Knickerbocker glory.

It is wartime in Maryhill, Glasgow. The city is in turmoil but, throughout it all, its residents struggle for whatever sliver of normalcy they can get. With the support of a boisterous family and steadfast friends, can Maggie navigate 1930s and 40s societal politics in her attempt to find the right path? Her gang includes her unwavering daddy who often cannot see past the end of his nose, an interfering aunt whose biggest belief is in her own opinion and a train wreck girlfriend striving for acceptance, so, when it comes to the four men makin’ a meal o’ it, they are in good company. Still, oor Maggie will not go down without a fight.

About the Author

JJ’s writing is heavily influenced by the places and people she met as a shoestring traveller in her 20s. However, she is no longer in her 20s and her work is pure, unadulterated fiction. Writing across a variety of themes and genres, her first novel grew closer to home than abroad, when her Gran revealed that she had, in fact, been proposed to four times in the 1940s (talk about a plot twist) and had turned them all down! This was far too juicy to let go and inspired JJ to fill in the three big mysterious blanks surrounding a woman who was the best storyteller in Glasgow.

Always ready to be inspired, JJ is salsaing through life with her notepad and pen, waiting for the next idea to hit her in the head. Getting run over by a truck (yes really!) was just a blip. She has earned her stripes as a high school English teacher, spreading her love of literature to unreceptive young minds, and has edited and published the work of emerging writers in Firewords Magazine which she co-founded with her husband in 2014. Discovering and promoting up-and-coming writers is one of JJ’s great joys, especially after attaining an LLB, PGCE and Msc at university when she became thoroughly aware of the hell that lies in a life full of academia without the bliss of creative freedom. With Puck the Cockapoo in tow, she is determined to grab life by the bindings and make it more than just a palatable cover.

She currently has two novels at editing stage and a first draft mid-meltdown, all of which see strong Scottish characters take on the world. Having been published in Gallivant Journal and the IPSE Freelance Corner, she also has a short story collection in progress based firmly on her backpacking experience and the long stints in Toronto, Canada, which has led her to declare it her spiritual second home. Recently she has replaced air travel with campervan travel but one thing remains certain: no matter what life brings, she’ll never truly leave the world of shoestrings, hostels and writing on the road behind.