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Live and Learn
Live and Learn
Sep 11, 2025 8:25 PM

Author:Stanley Middleton

Live and Learn

Stanley Middleton has been described as ‘the Chekhov of suburbia’. Live and Learn explores the expanding possibilities the world offers to a young couple.

Jonathan, a twenty-eight-year-old academic and a keen rugby player, and Emma, the solicitor daughter of a vicar, seem to have it all. But life, even solid provincial life, can be more precarious and extreme than it first appears. Sudden violence, even murder, can happen without warning, as Jonathan and Emma discover and in the process they come to a fuller understanding of how complex even the most straightforward life really is.

Reviews

Absolutely bloody heartrending. Hannah's eccentric style is never mawkish and often wonderfully funny

—— Kate Saunders , The Times

Wonderfully quirky and contemporary. Hannah's writing has the accomplished feel of a far more experienced novelist.

—— Observer

There's an elegance to Hannah's prose, and a compassion in the way he handles his subject matter that's rare to find in a debut.

—— Independent

An affecting debut. Hannah proves himself a worthy inheritor of the lip-trembling English tradition.

—— Guardian

Genuinely one of the best books I've ever read.

—— LISA JEWELL

Hannah's debut is told on the deathbed of 40-year-old Ivo as he looks back on his life in the confidence of his nurse Sheila and the love of his life, Mia. Expect tears.

—— Grazia

An engagingly light touch, shot through with humour

—— The Daily Mail

It is wonderfully well written and hard to believe this is James Hannah's debut novel. Very early on I felt this was going to be a book I loved and I was right.

—— @sambakey

As The A to Z of You and Me drew to a close (with me sobbing), I thought about how kind people can be. How hard, beautiful and frustrating life is. And how we should make the effort to engage with it fully. It is, after all, fleeting at best.

—— Stylist

I loved The A-Z of You and Me. James Hannah has an unerring eye for the tiniest detail within the biggest picture. This wry and tender love story is powerful, lyrical and moving'

—— Catherine O'Flynn, author of Costa prize-winning WHAT WAS LOST

Beautifully constructed and hugely moving. Deserves to be a smash hit.

—— LISSA EVANS, author of Crooked Heart

Funny and sweet, whilst also being heartbreaking and thoroughly real throughout.

—— TheBookBag.co.uk

What a book! I am heartbroken.

—— @BookGeekWearsPajamas

So beautiful ... a stunning, unique debut

—— @caroline_Smailes

Wonderfully well written and hard to believe this is James Hannah's debut novel. Very early on I felt this was going to be a book I loved and I was right.

—— bakeysbookblog.blogspot.co.uk

Sad and funny in equal measure but also quite uplifting about the power of the human spirit. An author who I am sure will continue to go from strength to strength.

—— @jaffareadstoo

This book broke my heart.

—— handwrittengirl.com

This is a really engrossing, interesting read and a book I just couldn't put down.

—— tealadymumbles.co.uk

The story is sad, yet it is uplifting. The characters are flawed, yet human. I was very impressed by this novel. It is a delight to read and to recommend to others.

—— randomthingsthroughmyletterbox.blogspot.co.uk

I was completely sucked into this book and flew through the pages. I loved it.

—— www.cosybooks.com

This book has moved me and it has changed me, and isn't that what it is all about? It is only March and I don't know if anything will top this one this year for me. Essential reading.

—— reflectionsofareader.blogspot.co.uk

Take Trainspotting, cut out the swearing, and add a filter of nuanced meditations on love: welcome to The A to Z of You and Me. I absolutely loved this book.

—— sarahjasmon.com

'David Nicholls' school of commercial fiction. An accomplished piece of fiction, both entertaining and thought-provoking

—— alifeinbooks.co.uk

Spare, poignant and with a quirky charm all of its own, it reminds us how kind people can be

—— RACHEL JOYCE

Wonderful and heartbreaking.

—— CLAIRE FULLER, Desmond Elliott Prize winner 2015

Hannah writes with emotional acuity. Warm, wry, thoughtful and devastating in places, this is a life-enhancing missive from death's door.

—— The Sunday Times

The most richly fruited post-modern novel since Jeanette Winterson’s Sexing the Cherrys

—— Marcus Field , Independent

A bold, impressive debut

—— 4 stars , Daily Telegraph

As a debut novel, it is truly dazzling and Hermione Eyre has proved herself an author well worth watching out for

—— Susannah Perkins , Nudge

Profoundly moving

—— Country Life
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