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Chapters (63)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise for All About Us
  3. About the Author
  4. Note to Readers
  5. Dedication
  6. Prologue
  7. Chapter One
  8. Chapter Two
  9. Chapter Three
  10. Chapter Four
  11. Chapter Five
  12. Chapter Six
  13. Chapter Seven
  14. Chapter Eight
  15. Chapter Nine
  16. Chapter Ten
  17. Chapter Eleven
  18. Chapter Twelve
  19. Chapter Thirteen
  20. Chapter Fourteen
  21. Chapter Fifteen
  22. Chapter Sixteen
  23. Chapter Seventeen
  24. Chapter Eighteen
  25. Chapter Nineteen
  26. Chapter Twenty
  27. Chapter Twenty-One
  28. Chapter Twenty-Two
  29. Chapter Twenty-Three
  30. Chapter Twenty-Four
  31. Chapter Twenty-Five
  32. Chapter Twenty-Six
  33. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  34. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  35. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  36. Chapter Thirty
  37. Chapter Thirty-One
  38. Chapter Thirty-Two
  39. Chapter Thirty-Three
  40. Chapter Thirty-Four
  41. Chapter Thirty-Five
  42. Chapter Thirty-Six
  43. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  44. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  45. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  46. Chapter Forty
  47. Chapter Forty-One
  48. Chapter Forty-Two
  49. Chapter Forty-Three
  50. Chapter Forty-Four
  51. Chapter Forty-Five
  52. Chapter Forty-Six
  53. Chapter Forty-Seven
  54. Chapter Forty-Eight
  55. Chapter Forty-Nine
  56. Chapter Fifty
  57. Epilogue
  58. Acknowledgements
  59. Author Q&A with Tom Ellen
  60. Extract
  61. Will
  62. Will
  63. About the Publisher

Before I can finish the sentence, the purple door opens, and a man and woman step out. They’re about my age, chatting breezily to one another, the man carrying a buggy with a very cute baby in it. They give us a friendly smile as they pass.

For a second, I hear nothing except my heart beating.

‘Did you know them?’ Harv asks.

‘No, I just …’ I stare at the purple door. It’s just somebody’s home. But still, somehow, I know I was here. I know that the watch-seller was real. Because the changes he wrought in me are real.

I glance down at my watch and feel a warm glow pass through me as I see the hands ticking steadily. I fix it back around my wrist.

‘Come on, man,’ I say to Harv. ‘Let’s go home.’

And I turn and walk away, my best mate beside me, under the fading summer sun, back to Daphne, back to the next chapter of our life together.

Acknowledgements

First and foremost, a massive thank you to the mighty Emily Kitchin, who is not only a brilliant editor, but also a master plotter, indefatigable great-idea generator and highly skilled de-italiciser. Thank you so much for everything, Emily – I owe you many, many drinks…

Big thanks also to: everyone at HQ, Kirsty McLachlan and all at DGA, Rachel Leyshon, Lucy Ivison, Anne-Sophie Jahn and Ersi Sotiropoulos. Thanks to my parents and my brother. Thanks to my friends, in particular the ones from whom I shamelessly borrowed names, traits, jokes or anecdotes to put in this book. Including but not limited to: Carolina Demopoulos, Harvey Horner, Jeremy Stubbings, Susan Simmonds, Daphne Koutsafti, Robin Pasricha, Rob Ellen, Chris Carroll and Neil Redford.

I wrote big chunks of All About Us at two fantastic writers’ residences in Greece – the House of Literature in Paros and the International Writers’ & Translators’ Centre of Rhodes. Thank you very much to everyone at both, and in particular to Eleftheria Binikou at the IWTCR.

And thank you to Charles Dickens for the loan of his story structure. Thanks, Charles.

Author Q&A with Tom Ellen

Can you tell us about your inspiration for writing All About Us?