The Man Who Didn't Go To Newcastle

“In June 2007 whilst out walking my dog, I opened a text from my brother saying: Am in St Georges – Rodney Smith Ward. Ring me. A.”

Alison’s brother Adrian had been admitted to St. George’s Hospital in Tooting with a cut hand and low blood pressure. Tests had led to more serious concerns and he was calling on Alison to be with him when the consultant brought results of a biopsy on his lung. Alison heeded his call and took the train up to London the next day, only to find that the results weren’t available. She then went back to Somerset, with no idea of what the next few months would hold for them both. Whilst juggling her home life – at a time when her four children still lived at home – with long-distance hospital visiting, Alison tried her best to cope and make plans when Adrian eventually told her that, following the results, he’d been given a year to live. She had no idea then that he wasn’t being entirely truthful…

The Man Who Didn’t Go To Newcastle is a unique combination of pathos, humour and an insight into what happens when ordinary lives are faced with the extraordinary. Much of the book details the relationship between Alison and her brother and how it was tested as he deteriorated. It is a book for anyone who has lost someone they’ve cared about – or come into contact with the hospital superbug, C.diff., which, along with a heart attack, killed Adrian before the cancer could.

Over 50 of Alison Clink’s short stories have been published in the UK (mainly in Woman's Weekly and Take A Break's Fiction Feast) and abroad. She has won prizes for her work and her stories have been broadcast on Radio 4 and she’s had articles published in Stella magazine and the Guardian. Her short plays have been performed locally and she created the Frome Festival Short Story Competition. Alison currently teaches creative writing at Babington House in Somerset.