Longhand by Andy Hamilton @unbounders @RandomTTours #AndyHamilton #Longhand #BlogTour

Published on the 3rd of September 2020. My thanks to Unbound for the review copy and Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for inviting me on to the blog tour. 

Malcolm George Galbraith is a large, somewhat clumsy, Scotsman. He’s being forced to leave the woman he loves behind and needs to explain why. So he leaves her a handwritten note on the kitchen table (well, more a 300-page letter than a note). In it, Malcolm decides to start from the beginning and tell the whole story of his long life, something he’s never dared do before. Because Malcolm isn’t what he seems: he’s had other names and lived in other places. A lot of other places. As it gathers pace, Malcolm’s story combines tragedy, comedy, mystery, a touch of leprosy, several murders, a massacre, a ritual sacrifice, an insane tyrant, two great romances, a landslide, a fire, and a talking fish. 

Praise for The Star Witness: 

‘The story unfolds with a brisk inevitability, but what I liked most was the steady moral good sense at the heart of it’ – Phillip Pullman 

‘Andy Hamilton brings his insider know-how to the worlds of TV and celebrity. His material may be dark, but he treats it with a lightness of touch and tone’ – Daily Mail 

‘Like its author, this book is funny, poignant and too short’ – Jack Dee 

My Thoughts: 

Longhand by Andy Hamilton is unforgettable in many ways. As the title may suggest the story is told entirely in the authors handwriting and as I understand it took forty three pens to complete. The handwriting is beautiful and this is a book to be enjoyed and savoured. 

The story is an extremely long letter to Malcolm George Galbraith's beloved Bess and is a story of love and adventures and also an explanation as to why he has to leave her. Finally having found someone that he feels he can tell his story to. 

Steeped in mythology there is humour and poignancy throughout that just made the story so endearing and engaging. We never get to meet Bess but the reader feels as if they know her purely from the way Malcolm talks about/to her. 

There is philosophy here also and how the myths relate to the present day and goings on and also a question about why as humans we feel we have to believe in certain things and conform to particular ideas. I found this book fascinating for all of its ruminations and exploration. 

Of course whilst a love letter to Bess this book could also be viewed as somewhat of a love letter to the epistolary format and the art of letter writing itself. I found this book genuinely interesting to read in this format. There are no corrections but there are crossing out. This style showed the urgency at times and when Malcolm stumbled over his story and what he wanted to say next. 

A wonderful adventure and one that is memorable and unique. 

About the Author: 

Andy Hamilton is a comedy writer, performer and director. He regularly appears on the BBC TV panel shows Have I Got News for You and on Radio 4’s News Quiz and I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue. His television writing credits include Outnumbered, Drop the Dead Donkey, Not the Nine O'Clock News, Trevor's World of Sport, Ballot Monkeys, Power Monkeys and many others. He also cocreated the movie What We Did On Our Holiday. For twenty years he has played Satan in the Radio 4 comedy Old Harry’s Game, which he also writes.

Please do have a look at the other stops on the blog tour.