#BlogTour ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’ by David M Barnett

About the book…

How do you find love . . . when you have the loneliest job in the world?

This is the story of Gayle and Martin, who fall in love over the course of ten years- over a yearly visit to a tiny, isolated island off the Welsh coast.

Gayle is a teacher and each year she brings her class to the island to see the local flora and fauna, from sea birds to playful seals. Martin, the island’s caretaker and only human resident, lives in and maintains the lighthouse, which opens to the public for just this one day a year.

Gayle is effervescent but feels trapped, while Martin is lonely and isolated. As their love slowly builds over time, they both yearn for the annual field trip where they can finally see each other… Until one year Gayle doesn’t come back, and Martin has to leave his island hideaway to find her.

My thanks to Tracy at Compulsive Readers for the blog tour invite, and publishers Orion for my gifted review copy of ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’, available now from all good bookstores!

Told through alternating chapters, from Martin and Gayle’s point of views, moving towards them dovetailing on Ynys Dwynwen ( Ynys means island and Dwynwen is the patron saint of Welsh Lovers) over the course of 10 years, ‘There Is A Light…’  is such a joyful read, I was so thrilled to have the chance to read it.

I LOVE lighthouses and their history as emblems of safety and reliability in an increasingly turbulent and dangerous world.

There is a temptation to provide overly tragic and wrought reasons to bring both of the protagonists together, but honestly, each character is drawn so sensitively and beautifully, that they are steered towards their inevitable meeting with a sense of natural progression rather than being shoe horned into it.

Both have expectations piled high upon them, Martin, having nothing left to lose and nothing else to stay for, abandons the battered remains of his life (and believe me, his life is a smoking wreckage which is he is somewhat responsible for) and Gayle is a representative of EnviroMonitor with responsibilities for holding companies to account for their environmental impact. Her family are concerned that she is not getting any younger and should settle down whilst Martin’s friends and workmates feel he should do something to stop his life going into freefall.

It’s gentle, hilarious (there is a funeral scene which had me roaring , not something you normally freely admit to) in the way in which characters interact with each other, and filled to the brim with gorgeous creations like the fearsome Mrs Carruthers, Martin’s upstairs neighbours and Gayle’s best friend Donna, whose investment in Gayle’s life doesn’t preclude being straight with her where she is stepping on landmines.

There are moments which I did not see coming, I am not the kind of reader who looks out for things or predicts plots, I like to be swept away if that makes any sense at all. And this is what I got, a moving book with moments that caught me off guard and a genuine sense of enjoyment on finishing.

How, where and why they meet somehow seems less important than the journey they take getting thee, and it’s a bold move to place this symbol at the heart of a novel which arrives with so much love and affection in the hands of the reader. It’s a funny, moving, meditative piece which deserves to be thoroughly enjoyed by as many readers as possible.

About the author… 

David Barnett is a journalist, novelist and comic book writer based in the North of England. After many years working in regional newspapers he became a full-time freelance writer in 2015 and as a journalist works primarily for the UK press. He is also the author of several published novels, including the bestselling CALLING MAJOR TOM, and writes comics for DC, IDW and others. David has also worked in training and lecturing, principally in journalism, and takes on commercial content commissions.

Links-https://davidbarnett.wordpress.com/

Twitter @davidmbarnett @orionbooks