John Ironmonger

The best journeys end at a place you can call home ...When a young man washes up, naked, on the sands of St Piran in Cornwall, he causes quite a stir in the remote village. From the retired village doctor and the schoolteacher to the beachcomber and the owner of the local bar, the priest''s wife and the romantic novelist, they take this lost soul into their hearts. But what the villagers don''t know is that Joe has fled the City of London, terrified that something he''s done is about to cause world-wide chaos. But is the end of the world really nigh? And what of the whale that lurks in the bay?

When a young man washes up, naked, on the sands of St Piran in Cornwall, he is quickly rescued by the villagers. From the retired village doctor and the schoolteacher, to the beachcomber and the owner of the local bar, the priest's wife and the romantic novelist, they take this lost soul into their midst. But what the villagers don't know is that Joe Haak has fled the City of London fearing a worldwide collapse of civilisation, a collapse forecast by Cassie, a computer program he designed. But is the end of the world really nigh? Can Joe convince the village to seal itself off from the outside world? And what of the whale that lurks in the bay? Intimate, funny and deeply moving, Not Forgetting the Whale is the story of a man on a journey to find a place he can call home.

When young idealist Tom publicly humiliates politician Monty in a Cornish pub, it sparks a simmering feud that cascades through their intertwined lives. The consequences of their argument, and the deadly wager they strike, will cascade down the decades. Years later, they find themselves a long way from St Piran onto a colossal iceberg drifting south away from Greenland, their only companion a starving polar bear. This is a heart-stopping tale of anger, tragedy, and enduring love, cast against the long unfolding backdrop of an irreversible global crisis.

"NOT ALL OF THIS IS TRUE. But some surely is. Most of it, I hope." When five wealthy trophy hunters descend upon a remote African forest, they overlook the passionate young researcher, Angel Restorick, who has learned to communicate with the chimpanzees she studies. As the hunters close in, Angel must use her unique bond with the chimps to outwit the human predators. From the Cornish village of St Piran to the jungles of Tanzania and back, this gripping tale weaves themes of conservation, connection, and courage against exploitation.

For fans of THE UNLIKELY PILGRIMAGE OF HAROLD FRY, THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU, Mark Watson and Mark Haddon, here is a cleverly written mystery about fate, circumstance, destiny and coincidence from COSTA AWARD-shortlisted author, John Ironmonger. This quirky read is hard to put down and spans philosophy, conflict, relationships and romance.Thomas Post is an expert on coincidences. Hes an authority. People come to see him, to ask him if he can explain strange events that have befallen them, and he can always explain these things away. We poor humans, he would say, have a tendency to make patterns out of random shapes, or to construct meaning from the random behaviour of the universe.But one day Thomas gets a visit from Azalea Lewis, and his world will never be the same again. For Azaleas coincidences seem to go off the scale. The lives of Thomas and Azalea become entwined, their destinies entangled. And now, with Azalea apparently dead in a foreign land, Thomas must reassemble the pieces of her life in search for the patterns that drove it. And that means he must try to unravel the coincidences that so afflicted her.

Grâce au secours d’une baleine, un jeune homme nu s’échoue sur la plage de St Piran et se voit recueilli à l’unanimité par le petit village de Cornouailles. Un docteur retraité, un patron de pub, la

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLERA gentle and uplifting tale of warding off apocalypse in a remote corner of Cornwall . . . charmingFinancial TimesA tremendously enjoyable book Independent on SundayBloody brilliant Liz Fenwick, author of The Cornish HouseIt all began with the whale.When a young man washes up on the sands of St Piran in Cornwall, it is clear to the villagers that this is not a regular day. What has brought him here? And what is the crisis only he understands, that threatens not only their community but all of civilisation?With a global pandemic on the horizon, and a whale lurking in the bay, the villagers of St Piran must band together to survive. Intimate, funny and heart-warming, John Ironmonger tells a compelling story about the important things that hold us together, and how hope can be found, even at the end of the world.A warm-hearted book crammed with ideas . . . very, very goodEmerald StreetA compelling and unusual modern fable Natasha Solomons, author of Mr Rosenblums ListBeautiful, dark, uplifting Kate Long, author of The Bad Mothers Handbook

SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA FIRST NOVEL AWARDMaximilian Ponder is lying face up, dead, on the dining table in his own front room. This is something you really should know, right from the start. Max would also have wanted you to know that this is a Henri II style, French, walnut extending dining table, standing on solid turned legs with fretwork decor to the middle, also with ebony and sandalwood inlay, designed by the French furniture maker Nicolas Rastin and probably dating from around 1900 ...Maximilian Ponder shut himself away for thirty years in an attempt to record every memory he ever had. Now he lies dead, surrounded by his magnum opus - The Catalogue - an exhaustive set of notebooks and journals that he hopes will form the map of one human mind. But before his friend Adam Last can call the police and inform them of Maxs death, one rather gruesome task remains in order for Maxs project to be complete. Interspersed with sections from The Catalogue, Adam tells the story of the man he knew - a man whose life changed dramatically the day he buried a dead labrador and fought a duel with his father. What emerges is both the story of a friendship, and also of a lifelong obsession, a quest to understand the human mind, memory and what constitutes a life.

Un joven aparece desnudo y medio ahogado en la playa de St Piran, un remoto y aislado pueblecito de Cornualles. Su llegada coincide, y se relaciona, con la aparición de una ballena en las aguas del pueblo. Sus habitantes no saben que se llama Jonas "Joe" Haak, que es un analista de la City londinense y que ha diseñado a Cassie, un programa informatico para anticiparse a los movimientos de los mercados. Tampoco saben que su extraña aparicion esta relacionada con las grandes perdidas de su banco y con los ultimos datos analizados por Cassie que apuntan a que puede desatarse una "tormenta perfecta": una crisis energetica y economica global que provocara el caos, y la desaparicion de la ley y el orden en todo el mundo; solo prevalecera la lucha por la supervivencia.¿Esta tan cerca el fin del mundo? ¿Podra el misterioso analista de la City convencer a St Piran para que se aisle del mundo exterior y se prepare para lo peor? Y, en medio de esta situacion dramatica, ¿que relacion hay entre Jonas y la enigmatica ballena que acecha en la bahia?Como en sus anteriores obras, John Ironmonger nos brinda en "La ballena de St Piran" una novela original que alienta la reflexion del lector sobre temas acuciantes de nuestros dias, pero sin olvidar ni la inventiva ni las emociones humanas. "La ballena de St Piran" es una novela inteligente y entrañable, una fabula divertida y profundamente conmovedora que resalta, en un momento apocaliptico, no nuestro lado oscuro sino nuestros aspectos mas humanos.