For 25 years, Mike Gayle has been delivering bestselling novels that demonstrate there’s no such thing as an ‘ordinary’ life’; that prove that the emotional highs and lows of relatable characters can power a book that’s all the more involving because readers might be able to see their own lives and problems reflected in it. His new book, though, adds a fresh twist to idea of a ‘second time around’ love story. In A Song of Me & You, one of the reunited former lovers is a Manchester primary school teacher, Helen. The other, her first love, Ben, has become one of the world’s most famous rock stars – not only the last person Helen expects to see when someone knocks on her door, but a character whose existence in an ‘everyday romance’ might well stretch the boundaries of credibility. In Mike’s empathetic hands, though, the reader is drawn into an immersive rollercoaster of a story where even the problems of stratospheric celebrity become emotionally involving as Ben and Helen reunite at a point where both are at their lowest ebb.
‘Everyone’s got to come from somewhere and it’s easy to forget that,’ says Mike. His voice unmistakeably conveys his own Birmingham roots. ‘You kind of assume celebrities have always had that glorious life but they all have beginnings in their own way,’ he continues. ‘Most of my books are about ordinary people and I
