New book

Tom Campbell's latest book, Helen Hoskins Begins Again, takes Brighton and Shoreham as its setting.

It comes from Mensch Publishing at £17.

In the book, Helen is 47, newly divorced, and knee-deep in a ruthless clear-out.

The plan is to ditch the clutter, the memories and the people who have made her life so difficult. At least, that’s what everyone tells her to do.

Then fate throws a curveball in the shape of Leo — an old university friend she barely remembers, but who knows all too well what it’s like to choose the wrong life partner.

Helen and Leo were never close, yet suddenly they have a surprising amount in common. Regret. Freedom. And maybe… chemistry?

So, Helen comes up with a daring idea: a joint divorce party one night to mix their mismatched friends, toast their failed marriages, and say a definitive goodbye to the past…

Tom, aged 55, now lives in Stoke Newington in London although he used to live off the Western Road in Brighton.

“The book is a comedy centred around two people, both living in Brighton and recently single, who decide to throw a divorce party.

“It has been, naturally enough, described as a post-divorce romcom but I hope that it will have appeal to anyone, divorced or not. The two people are in their mid-40s, and looking to re-boot their lives, and I think this is something that many of us, whatever our age or situation, can relate to.

“Divorce parties are an American concept, but are becoming increasingly common in the UK, and I went to a friend’s one a few years ago. It was such an emotive, peculiar and psychologically rich event that I immediately knew there had to be a book in it. That was the starting point, and then I very much wanted to set the story in Brighton, which is a city I know well and have always thought lends itself to romantic misadventure.

“This is my third novel. My first, Fold, was about a dysfunctional group of men who meet to play poker every month and ruin one another’s lives. My second, The Planner, was based around my experiences of working in London government, and the tribulations of town planning – which does, I admit, sound a bit niche. There aren’t many town planners in literature.

“I started writing while I was working in London government many years ago, and things were so chaotic there didn’t seem much else to do!”