The Longest Day

by Lisa Williams

All life is here
The 21st of June 2019. The longest day. Longhope House, Leicester

Eternity in an hour, the world in a grain of sand, yet these aren’t the songs of innocence. Birth, death, celebration, recrimination, condemnation, elation, realisation, ignorance, departure, arrival, love, hate, kindness, indifference; Lisa Williams’ debut novella harnesses the warp and weft of tiny tower block-set stories to forge an astute and moving tapestry. What will this hot summer’s day have in store for each and every single one of the residents? Time runs in streaks. Time is running out.

144 pages, Paperback

Published August 2, 2026

Reviews

[Marnie Broomby]

Each page of Lisa Williams' 'The Longest Day' feels like a window into the lives of the inhabitants of Longhope House. She deftly builds up the tower block through her unique drabble approach, and with every 100 word story we gain an insight into her take on the modern-day social issues of 21st century Britain. A book to make you think and look at the world around you. I thoroughly enjoyed the diverse range of characters and their stories, and how all of these were expertly threaded together to create an engaging and provoking read.

[David Gladwin]

People living in flats, living with their problems. Problems from outside coming in, problems from inside coming out. The flats are a fragmented community built from the fragments of a community, the tower and its inhabitants barely holding together. Marking time, filling time, lives ticking away against the progress of the day. Progressing nowhere. There’s nowhere to go, or at least you wouldn’t start from here.

But today is the longest and last day, the last when it seems like decay lasts forever. Decayed after decades, the days and the nights interchangeable. Numbers on doors across all of the floors and the lift never works, just the people who climb up and down, or else cower, awaiting their fate in the old concrete column.

Whether sentenced here by the outside world or hiding here from the world outside, the residents of Longhope House feed into its ferment and feed upon more of the same. The tower confines and defines its denizens, giving us glimpses of lives lived in various states between hope and despair. In peril, imperiling, predators preyed upon, users abused as the structure is rocked by the breeze.

[Paul Taylor-McCartney]

An unflinching, beautifully written and highly original novella. Williams’ skill in magnifying the tiniest of details, making small exchanges between people, or the fleeting thoughts of her characters, is nothing short of revelatory, and gives a voice to the often overlooked and forgotten in society. Bravo to the author and to Road Song Books for having the courage to create and produce this sort of book, which is very much needed at this time, especially as the divide between the ‘haves’ and ‘will never-haves’ continues to grow.

[Alan Roberts]

Everything is present in Lisa Williams' codex of the human spirit. The Longest Day possesses a level of mastery I've rarely encountered...