Later in the book, Harold becomes a bit of a cause célèbre, and a band of other pilgrims gather around him, and he has to confront things, whereas before he has been very British and polite about everything. Rachel confessed that her children and one of her dogs also appear in the book. Then there are the various people who talk to Harold on his journey – you can confide in someone who’s passing through. The novel has a large cast of supporting characters, and Rachel explained a little about some of them from the Girl in the Garage – the catalyst for Harold’s journey who has faith, but is grounded serving burgers. Each scene has to have an essential plot point to it – otherwise it’s superfluous, and each episode has to end on a hook. She kept this structure in the novel, but of course gained the freedom to expand and describe all the background and landscape that can’t be included in a short play. Radio plays have around 7000 words in their 45 minutes, compared with say 90,000 in a typical novel. Her novel started out as a 45 minute radio play that she wrote for her father who was dying of cancer sadly he never got to hear it, but it went on to win an award. It was fascinating to hear her talk about writing for radio and the differences between that and writing a novel. Although this is her first novel, Rachel has honed her art on radio, writing plays and adapting novels for Woman’s hour and the afternoon play on BBC Radio 4. I read this book at the end of March and loved it – my review follows below.Īfter reading from the novel, Rachel then talked in conversation with Alison from Transworld Books before opening up the floor to questions. I spent the evening of World Book Night at Abingdon Library in the company of Rachel Joyce – the bestselling author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. World Book Night 2012 in Abingdon with Rachel Joyce

Republished back into my blog’s timeline from my old blog., combined 2012 posts from author event and book review…

The unlikely journey of harold fry