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ADVANCE INFORMATION

It Happened in

Clissold Park

Hugh Todd

KEY SELLING POINTS
An intricately interwoven and life-affirming collection of stories which are both heart-warming and,
sometimes, heart-wrenching.
They will open your eyes and rekindle your wonder at the people and places we often take for granted.
For fans of Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout and Capital by John Lanchester.

Clissold Park is a large leafy park in Hackney, North London. It’s got football pitches, ponds, woodlands and a
playground, but also romance, ghosts, fireworks, reindeer, urban cowgirls, buried treasure, mystic mounds,
sentient trees and a strong whiff of magic. In these twelve linked stories, we discover heart-breaking, uplifting
tales and meet a diverse cast of unforgettable characters. Told over the course of a year, each month’s story
intertwines with the others to form a vibrant tapestry of modern London life.

At the heart of the park are park-keepers laid-back Lloyd and rule-bound Rob, plus kindly park vet Janet. Lloyd
thinks he’s seen everything, until one freezing January morning he spots an ethereal ice-skater on the frozen
pond – but was she ever really there? Rob will have a supernatural experience of his own when he accidentally
crashes a Halloween party thrown by the ghosts of everyone who has a memorial bench here. Also we are
introduced to the crime-fighting exploits of schoolgirl Abimbola and her beloved horse, and to the later-life love
story of Astrid, café-owner Tony, and Eric the truffle-hunting beagle. There is even the ghostly presence of the
park founder Lord Clissold, still a master of revelries at the ripe old age of 227.

Hugh Todd has lived in North London for over 25 years. He has had several stories published, including 1 in
300,000,000 which was shortlisted for the Winston Fletcher prize. He has enjoyed a 30-year career in
advertising as an award-winning copywriter and creative director and is the co-founder of the Behind the
Billboard podcast. He gets his ideas from daily walks in his local park which is where his debut novel is set.

Publication Date: 28th May 2024 £9.99 ISBN: 9781805143338
Thema subject category: FB – Fiction: general and literary
paperback 198 x 129 mm 200 pp Portrait Author location: London

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