The People on Platform 5 by Clare Pooley #NetGalley #bookreview #ThePeopleonPlatform5 @cpooleywriter @TransworldBooks

 

The People on Platform 5 by Clare Pooley

Published by Random House UK, Transworld Publishers

Publication Date: 26th May 2022

Genre: Womens Fiction

My sincere thanks to the publishers Transworld for the opportunity to read an advance e-copy ahead of publication. The opinions expressed here are all my own and unbiased.

Book Description:

Nobody speaks to strangers on the train. But what would happen if they did?

Every day at 8:05, Iona Iverson boards the train to go to work. Every day, she sees the same people and makes assumptions about them, even giving them nicknames. But they never speak. Obviously.

Then, one morning, Smart-but-Sexist-Surbiton chokes on a grape right in front of Iona. Suspiciously-Nice-New Malden steps up to help and saves his life, and this one event sparks a chain reaction.

With nothing in common but their commute, an eclectic group of people learn that their assumptions about each other don't match reality. But when Iona's life begins to fall apart, will her new friends be there when she needs them most?

My Thoughts:

This book jumped out and gave me the biggest hug just when I needed it most. A huge fan of people watching, Clare Pooley has perfected the art and put it all into the most heart-warming novel I have read in a long time.
Iona Iverson and her canine companion Lulu take the same train across London every day, as it seems do a group of people who are all familiar to one another by sight but are unconnected in any other way. We all know that the First Rule of Commuting is that you do not interact with these people; you note the way they dress, the habits they have - even give them nicknames and dream up lives for them based on your observations of them. But you never interact. All that changed for Iona on The Day of The Grape.
The humble component of a fruit salad, chosen purely for its nutritional value following an unkind comment from his wife, causes one of the subjects of Iona's observations to require assistance and it is from thereon in that a select group of commuters find a bond with each other which none of them could ever have foreseen.
The story is told from each of the commuter's points of view at various points through the book; it seems that they all need advice and support far more than they each realise but gradually they all come to the same conclusion: the only person qualified to give the advice they need is Iona.
I absolutely adore this book! The easy writing style, the witty observations and a great sense of humour all come together to make this the triumph of a book that it is.  I think we can all imagine ourselves as one of the commuters on Iona's train - I for one would love to be one of the train gang in this book. I love how the characters evolve from the early pages into much happier souls at the end despite experiencing some of life's trip hazards along the way. I never imagined Smart-but-Sexist-Surbiton could have such hidden depths!
Iona herself is one of the most fabulous characters ever with her eccentric dress sense and tales of far more adventurous times in her youth before the daily commute pulled her into its clutches.

I simply cannot award this book sufficient sparkly stars. It's Fabulous darling!

About the Author:

Clare Pooley graduated from Newnham College, Cambridge with a degree in Economics, and joined the heady world of advertising.

By the age of thirty, Clare was on the board of JWT, one of the largest global advertising agencies, responsible for campaigns for brands like Kit Kat, Rolo, Persil, Shell, Barclays Bank, Rolex watches and many more household names.

A few years later Clare was made a Managing Partner and Group Head.

Then, when her third child was born, Clare quit the rat race to concentrate on being a Mum.

As well as making lots of cupcakes and homemade costumes for various dress up days, Clare drank an awful lot of wine.

By 2015 the wine was starting to mess up Clare’s life, so she quit and started a blog called Mummy was a Secret Drinker.

Within a year, the blog had over a million hits, and people kept asking Clare to turn her story into a memoir. Which she did, publishing The Sober Diaries with Hodder and Stoughton in December 2017. The book has had over 250 five star reviews on Amazon, and is described often as ‘Bridget Jones Dries Out.’ 

Clare then turned her hand to fiction, and her first novel, The Authenticity Project, was snapped up by Transworld (Penguin Random House), for a six-figure sum, after a heated six-way auction. It has subsequently sold to Penguin in the USA, and publishers in 28 other territories, from South Korea to Iceland.

The Authenticity Project was published in Spring 2020. The People on Platform 5 is her second novel.