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January is all about making fresh starts, new plans and wildly unrealistic promises. Most of us fall by the wayside within days. But not Harold Fry. The hero of our Booker-longlisted, January Book of the Month, THE PILGRIMAGE OF HAROLD FRY, is a retired and unhappily married pensioner living in Devon, who receives a letter from an old friend in Berwick Upon Tweed telling him she has cancer. He writes a reply, but on his way to the postbox, he decides that this is not enough. He must walk to Berwick in person, there and then. Only this, he knows, will keep her alive. And so begins a remarkable journey through the roads, cafes, tourist centres, towns and lanes of Britain. Along the way, a cast of diverse characters support, encourage and empathise with him, eventually turning into a cult following. Meanwhile, Harold's own memories begin to bubble up, and resolve the regret and sadness that have blighted his marriage and his relationship with David, the son who dramatically left home.

An exploration of grief and regret, as well as a celebration of love, faith and hope, this is a charming, moving and peculiarly British book.

Our book of the month page has more details about THE UNLIKELY PILGRIMAGE OF HAROLD FRY. You can get a paperback or Kindle edition here.

We are thrilled that Rachel will be joining us to discuss the book and answer any questions about THE UNLIKELY PILGRIMAGE OF HAROLD FRY, the Booker longlist and her writing career on Tuesday 29 January, 9-10pm.

Hope you can join us...

The Book of the Month page is now live. Apply for your free copy of THE PILGRIMAGE OF HAROLD FRY now.

There are still some copies of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry left, but only a few, so don't dilly-dally, shilly-shally or other things rhyming with ally...

The BBC has a downloadable taster here.

The giveaway copies of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry have now gone. If you were successful we'll forward your address details to the publisher who will pop a copy of the book in the post for you.

Jeffrey made his, just at the suitably celebby time of an hour after everyone else - but he still managed to answer a fair few questions, and not all of the arslikan sort...

Some of the best chats have been around books that deeply divided opinion. A D Miller's Snowdrops and Chrisos Tsiolkas The Slap were very busy, lively discussion nights. Both authors took a barrage of criticism, and they answered with thoughtful arguments on what they were trying to achieve, and why that might have failed or succeeded.

I think most bookclubbers have been fair and honest in their opinions, and the authors appreciate that - almost all of them emailed me afterwards to say how much they enjoyed the directness and intelligence of the discussion.

So keep posting, everyone, whatever you think of the book. If you loathe it, and can articulate that in a fair and balanced way, the author might be interested to engage with that. And you never know, you might get a pleasant surprise. I couldn't stand The Slap, but Christos became one of my all-time favourite guest authors...