more about the book

It has all the makings of a best-selling novel - young couple with everything going for them, meet by chance in a local television station. They fall instantly in love and enjoy a Mill's and Boon- style courtship - only with more sex and less face powder. All seems set for a perfect life together, until one of them is unexpectedly struck down by a near-fatal illness. The struggle to overcome that illness and the hardship of the months that follow turns their love into an unassailable bond. But there is a catch; they are at once blessed with untold happiness and cursed with the knowledge that that happiness is destined to be short-lived.
They spend the next nine years struggling with the after-effects of the illness but remain throughout, the happiest of couples, enjoying a love that is both rare and powerful. The birth of their two daughters completes their happiness, they move into a beautiful house and they begin to enjoy the fruits of their collective labour.

Tragedy strikes after ten blissful years together, leaving the wife to come to terms with the devastation of losing a man who was her love and her life.
It is a story of hope and despair, a totally uplifting, unputdownable, rip-roaring-rollercoaster of a novel.
Only it isn't a novel. It is the true story of the life and death of a remarkable man called Charlie Boydell.
I would love to be able to offer you the chance to read 'The Big-Hearted Man', but I cannot. I have been told by several publishers that although the book is a 'powerful, inspiring and well-written memoir' , because the subject is not a well-known figure from public life, demand would not be sufficient to merit publication.
I know that if I turned it into a novel, and suggested putting it on the bookshelves with a pink cover emblazoned with quirky, lime-green title such as 'Heart Broken!' Or, 'Widow's Peak'., then publishers would fall over themselves to off me an advance. But I will not do that.
I believe that the world needs stories like mine, a love story in its purest form and a memoir, which has profoundly touched every person who has read it thus far.

But don't take my word for it, read the comments of some of the people who have seen the manuscript; some are written by friends, so you can expect a certain amount of bias, but others are not. I have given the manuscript to men and women from all walks of life, often because I feel that reading it might be of benefit to them in some way. Occasionally the manuscript has been picked up by somebody unconnected to me in any way, and taken home. I hear stories of its travels into the homes of people who have started it out of curiosity, have stayed up until the early hours of the morning to finish it and have then felt compelled to take it home for their spouse to read.

'…It's a book that stays with you. My partner kept asking me questions about you and wanted to meet you. Not just the author, the person. If I hadn't known you I would have had the same reaction. At the risk of bursting into song, it is a book that reaches out and touches. It touched us both deeply, and that doesn't happen enough...'

'Spent the night not being able to sleep - damn jet lag, and thought I would give your tome a look. So compelling and well written that I didn't stop until I had finished it hours later. Consequently I'm knackered but mightily impressed.
Poor you, poor Charlie - wonderful you - wonderful Charlie.
Congrats…need sleep.
Yours down under,
Amy xx'

'…i love it and love it and don;t want it to end. As kids we used to see who could keep their chocolate Easter egg goig the longest by taking litel nibbles and licks. i am treating your work like that - relishing it for when I am alone so i don;t miss a word. i want to get lost in it and savour it all. It's a tremendous story about twi extraordinary people and thank God you heav captured it for us all.
By the way by typong skills are crap!
Marie xx'

'…It is funny, it makes you think about life, friendship, love, families, courage adversity and hope. It touches your heart and makes you sob out loud and roar with laughter. Everyone who reads it has the same reaction and no-one can read it without reading it through in one sitting. This book has to be published. This story has to be told…'
D.

'…I don't know where to begin but what struck me was the love and warmth on every page. It's been captured and reflected-on after the unimaginable. Whatever wonderful spells you cast on each other the reader is left just as spellbound. It's all so honest and up-front that from the first page to the last, every words acts like a mirror on the reader left to reflect on such a rich and vivid love.
After laughing and crying I came away from the book feeling so uplifted and more informed and understanding about life and death…'
Neil
(Neil Connery - Reporter for I.T.N.)

'..I'm about 3/4 of the way through it. I've laughed out loud and sniggered to myself, it's one of the few books I have ever read that has actually made me cry too. I could hear my heart beating during the last chapter. I have been raving about it so much to all my friends that they are queuing up to read it..'

'…To say your book was 'really good' was an insult, because it was, no is, quite the most moving, enriching and thought-provoking piece of prose I have ever read…'

These people are not experts, just ordinary people and I have a drawer full of letters from dozens like them.

But what do they know?

You can judge for yourself when a publisher decides to have the courage to market a book that doesn't easily fit into any category.

Until then you will have to wait.