Glasgow Gliterary Lunch with Anstey Harris & Megan Davis

When I First Held You
Anstey Harris

The Author

Anstey Harris was born in an unmarried mothers’ home in Liverpool in 1965. Now a mother and stepmother herself, she lives in Scotland. She has been inspired by her own search for her birth family and hopes to give a voice to the women and children separated from each other by forced adoptions.  Anstey won the H. G. Wells Short Story Award in 2015 and her debut novel, The Truths and Triumphs of Grace Atherton, a Richard and Judy Book Club choice, won the Sapere Books RNA Popular Romantic Fiction Award in 2020. Her second novel, Where We Belong, was shortlisted for the RNA Book of the Year Award 2021.

The Book

In 1960s Glasgow, anti-nuclear activists Judith and Jimmy fall in love. But their future hopes are dashed when their protestors’ squat is raided and ding Jimmy is sent to prison. Pregnant and with no word from Jimmy, Judith is forced to enter an unmarried mothers’ home, give up their baby and learn to live with her grief.

More than half a century later, Judith’s tranquillity is shattered when Jimmy—so different and yet somehow the same—reappears, yearning to unpick the painful past. Realising they each know only half of the other’s story, Jimmy and Judith finally break the silence that tore apart what might have been their family. Amid heartbreak and hope, how much can now be mended?

Praise for Anstey Harris

Compelling… A story of broken dreams and unexpected healing. You’ll want to read this.  Sarah Ward, author of the DC Childs series

The Messenger
Megan Davis

The Author

Megan Davis grew up in mining towns in Australia, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, and Singapore. She has worked in the film industry for many years and her credits include Atonement, In Bruges, Pride and Prejudice, and the Bourne films. Megan has first-hand experience of combatting white collar crime through working as a lawyer for Spotlight on Corruption, an anti-corruption charity.  She has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia.

Her debut The Messenger won the Bridport Prize for a first unpublished novel, judged by Kamila Shamsie, as well as the Lucy Cavendish Prize. She has lived in many places, including France, but now lives in London.

The Book

The Messenger is set in the gritty underbelly of Paris, against a backdrop of corruption, fake news and civil unrest, The Messenger is an award-winning unmissable debut thriller that follows one son’s journey to find redemption. After moving back to Paris to live with his French dad, Alex Giraud struggles to fit in at his exclusive school and feels stifled by the expectations of his overbearing father.  Seeking freedom, his new-found friend Sami teaches him the rules of the street; but one night of rebellion changes their lives forever. A simple plan for a robbery takes a sinister turn when Alex’s father is found dead and they are imprisoned for murder. Released seven years later Alex battles personal demons when he begins to uncover the truth about his father’s killer.

Praise for Megan Davis

Megan Davis’s electric, suspenseful and stunning evocation of contemporary Paris is unforgettable.  Elizabeth Macneal