London Gliterary Lunch, May 2025

This Bright Life
Karen Campbell

The Author

Karen Campbell is the author of nine novels.  A former police officer, then Glasgow City Council press officer, she won the Best New Scottish Writer Award in 2009.  She also teaches creative writing and was recently Writer in Residence at Dumfries and Galloway Council.  She regularly chairs Gliterary Lunches in Edinburgh and Glasgow.  Originally from Glasgow, she now lives in Galloway.

The Book

Gerard is twelve.  He hates his name, but loves flying round the streets of Glasgow on his bike, or mucking about with his gang, the Broncos.  He’s a bright kid,  but trouble seems to follow him.  No one really knows what it’s like at home for Gerard; he’s used to carrying a lot on his small shoulders.

Gerard doesn’t always make good decisions.  And on one April morning, in the blink of an eye, he makes a very bad one–one that will up end his whole world.  Now, he faces a bewildering stream of concerned adults clutching files, unfamiliar streets to navigate, a strange bed to  sleep in, and the very real chance he won’t see his wee brother and sister again.  Heartbreaking and yet brimful of humour, compassion and hope, This Bright Life is a story about messy lives, second chances and the many hands it takes to build a boy.

Praise for Karen Campbell

“Karen Campbell finds lives that can fall between the cracks and hold them up to the light of her clear, compassionate writing” Kirstin Innes

“Her words paint pictures with the touch of an old master.” Janice Hallett

Rembrandt's Promise
Barbara Leahy

The Author

Barbara Leahy is from Cork. She was a winner of the Irish Writers’ Centre Novel Fair in 2023. Her short stories have won numerous awards, appeared in the Bridport Prize Anthology, the Bristol Prize anthology, and been broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1. Rembrandt’s Promise is her first novel..

The Book

1642. The Dutch Golden Age is underway, with rapidly expanding Amsterdam at the height of its powers. Geertje, an impoverished widow from Edam, enters a melting pot of wealth and culture when she becomes nursemaid in the house of renowned painter, Rembrandt.

Still grieving the deaths of her husband and stillborn son, Geertje soon bonds with her infant charge, Titus. She makes new friends and her confidence grows.

After Rembrandt’s wife, Saskia, dies, Geertje grows close to the ardent but volatile painter, despite her loyal cousin Trijn warning her to leave his house. Realising she has idealised her late husband, Geertje begins a passionate affair with Rembrandt.

Praise for Barbara Leahy

“Here is a gift of a first novel, with prose as resolute and sensual as its wronged and determined narrator… this is read-on storytelling at its very best. A wonderful debut” Alan McMonagle, author of Ithaca

“With glorious language, she gives us a believable, elegant, and atmospheric novel – just beautiful” Nuala O’Connor, author of Seaborne and NORA