Dear Neighbour

by Jane Claire Bradley

Alice is a working hard to provide for her daughter, Mollie. But it's a challenge juggling her job alongside her duties as a single Mum in Leeds: a city she barely knows. Her neighbours keep to themselves and as much as she longs for a friend to rely on, she knows that things don't work out that way.

Bill has lived on Leodis Street for eighty years. It's where he was born, began his married life and eventually cared for his wife in her final days. Since Sally's death, Bill's home is a place of solitude, his talisman against an unrecognisable world.

When the residents of Leodis Street are threatened with eviction, Alice knows that she needs to make a stand. As she reaches out to her neighbours and learns about their lives, she is surprised to discover that she might already live next door to the friends she has been yearning for. Perhaps together they can build a community to be proud of and discover the true meaning of home.

Genres: Fiction

280 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 15, 2023

About the author

Jane Claire Bradley is an award-winning queer working-class writer and performer. She is the author of a novel, Dear Neighbour, and two chapbooks, Lost + Found and Truth or Dare.

Reviews

[Ceecee · Rating 4 out of 5]

The residents of Leodis Street in Leeds receive a shocking letter informing them of a forced eviction giving them just 28 days to vacate. Alice, a single mother to Mollie, grumpy 70+ Bill, librarian Levon originally an asylum seeker from Iraq, Ajay, a nurse and A-level student Jessie decide to fight back and form a plan of action. Whilst the neighbourhood is certainly a bit rundown, it definitely needs TLC, this is their home when all is said and done.

What a lovely book! It’s very well written, and though told from several perspectives it smoothly flows through the drama and really gets to the heart of this lovely community. Somehow, the author pulls you in, making the fight feel personal and so you want to get involved! The characters are a diverse range which really reflects Leeds and all their different personalities come across loud and clear. I enjoy all their back stories but perhaps Bills is the one that’s the biggest gut puncher but I will definitely channel my inner Jessie, I love her and her humour. I really like their internal monologues which enables the reader to thoroughly understand them. It’s so refreshing to read a book where you love the main characters and just boo at the smarmy developer. The setting of Leeds is very good as is the use made of the library where Levon works. I do know Leeds but could easily picture it even if I didn’t.

Although this is obviously character driven, it raises a very pertinent issue of the question of affordable housing, of tenants rights being ridden roughshod for the luxury end of the market. Gentrification is a very relevant issue and something we all need to be aware of. It also has it as at its heart what your home means to you and it shouldn’t matter what that home is if that’s where you love. Parts of the story make you angry at the injustice, others sections are sad and make you want to weep but this is a story of a wonderful group of people and it is heartwarming. Even though the ending is a bit ripe Brie, I still really like it. This is a very good read with an excellent message.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Kirsteen Astor at Little Brown Book Group for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

[Paul Forster · Rating 5 out of 5]

This fully 3D story of a small community fighting for their homes is a real gem. Fully realised characters and a nuanced and knowledgeable depiction of Leeds really elevates a ho-hum concept to its giddiest heights.

The character of pensioner, Bill, is quietly gripping and illustrates a simple but profound history of working class life since the war. I wasn't ready to be so moved by this book but I was moist eyes a few times and taken off guard by it.

A solid debut from a real talent. Very excited to see what Bradley does next.

[Lisa Friel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Feelgood story about the neighbours in a street coming together to fight an eviction order with the usual mix of characters and backgrounds, baddy developers and families coming in all shapes and sizes. I don't know Leeds well but it paints a good picture of the neighbourhood.
Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review it and congratulations to Jane Claire Bradley. I definitely know a few people to recommend it to!

[Barry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've hit the jackpot this week with both the books I've read being completely different but satisfying, albeit in very different ways.

I first came across Jane Claire Bradley in Lumpen: A Journal for Poor and Working Class Writers, Issue 009, Winter 2021 with her short story 'Red Paint' - a tale that felt so very familiar with a collaborative writing setting I was involved with a few years ago (although Bradley's version is a million times better than anything I can write, I did smile thinking, 'that's how someone writes what they know'). From there I checked out her contribution to the northern writers anthology Test Signal, the story 'We're Made of Electricity' - a story I could relate to on a deep level based on something that occurred during my childhood. I also picked up her chap book of short stories Truth or Dare which I highly recommend.

Throughout her work I think there is a thread of authentic working class voices, a deep connection to those teenage years as we enter adulthood and an intelligent, yet sensitive and vibrant ability to capture friendship, sexuality and love. From that first short story I've found myself keen to pick up everything she writes.

Which brings us to, 'Dear Neighbour', her first published novel which centres around the people who live in a run-down street in council owned properties in Leeds who face eviction at the hands of property developers and how those neighbours join forces to fight against the eviction.

Without straying into spoiler territory, this is a feel-good story. It's almost polemical at times with Bradley showing us the value of community, the beauty of solidarity, love and friendship and what it means to look beyond our own noses and see the breadth and depth and richness of our communities. It's a story where the good guys win.

I used to knock around Leeds a bit in the mid-90's so I could visualise the streets and the area well enough and the author draws on her own experience living there. I think I could easily cast my mind back to gigs in pubs, squat parties, hanging around in parks and crashing with new found friends in shared houses from back in the day. Bradley captures the sights and sounds and the people of Leeds quite well in my opinion.

If I am being honest, for the first half of the novel I wasn't feeling it too much. I felt the characters came together a little to easily, there wasn't to much tension between them as they decided to fight eviction. It felt idealised, rather than realistic but as the novel moved on I decided that I liked the idealised story - rather than being unrealistic, I saw it as imaginative, and what is art if not to help us reimagine our future, rather than reflect on how difficult things are now. I recognise this may not be everyone's cup of tea, but once I clicked with it, I liked it. Similarly, I never actually felt that that the street would actually be evicted - I never felt like they were in danger of losing their homes. I suppose this relative lack of drama does work if I look at it from a positive perspective and not everything needs to be grim. Maybe it's 'kitchen sink, but where everyone is happy to wash-up'.

At times, I felt the characters felt a little stock, almost as if they were caricatures and I kind of always knew that all of them would come good. One of the things I liked was the clear intent to show the richness and diversity of the people in Leeds with a conscious decision to show how the characters background and experience intersect with their own struggles individually and collectively.

At times reading it, I was thinking, 'which character am I most like here?' and the answer is no-one but at the same time I could see a little bit of me in Levon, the middle-aged Iranian refugee who spent a life campaigning for a better world, or maybe Jessie, the teenage anarcho vegan goth punk who was fiercely independent, needed to be listened to yet still needed love and support. I even saw a bit of Alice the single mum teacher in me, the one who fusses, who leads, yet sometimes needs to take a step back. I also wish I had a bit of AJ the nurse in me, because he sounds gorgeous and such a lovely bloke too. What I think I am trying to say is that whilst these characters may feel a bit cut-out I think they represent the breadth of a working class life and being able to identify with none specifically and all at some level meant I could connect with them.

The star of the show is Bill though. At the start of the novel we are introduced to him as a man in his late 70's who is a bit grumpy with his next door neighbour Alice, and one who is hard to get through to. It's clear though that there is far more to Bill and in many respects the book is his story. We learn even if he is being curt with his neighbour his private thoughts are softened. We learn about his past, his wife and the life they lived. It takes time and patience for the neighbours and Bill to connect but when they do - wow!

I was sitting in an airport terminal, waiting for a delayed flight home, enjoying my easy holiday read. I was about three quarters of the way through and Bill has a long section where he shares his story. A few pages later, I am crying, wiping tears from my eyes and giving my daughter next to me an extra big hug. This novel which I was thinking was 'it's alright' just blew me away. It was so emotional, so heart-tugging yet terribly authentic. I put the book down for a little while, then read on, smiling as my eyes glistened. My thoughts and heart metaphorically punching the air saying, 'this is what community is, this is what love is, this is what a life is, this is what our experience is and why it matters'. From this point on, I felt like I had got it. It was like being sucker-punched, or perhaps 'sucker-hugged' by Bill.

For the rest of the novel I felt I was cheering along with these wonderful people, and Bradley let's Bill take centre stage. This last quarter of the book is filled with so much love, so much power, one would need a heart of stone not to be moved. And as I was reading, I was thinking about how many of my friends and colleagues I will need to tell about this book.

On a personal note, I've been working with social workers recently as they try to adopt a strengths-based approach to practice, but really it just gives me a place where I can think about how my anarchism, collective working community development and asset based working perspectives can be useful. I feel like this novel in some ways is a primer for those who struggle with the concepts. For Bill, in many social care models he would be viewed in terms of what he can't do, what he needs help with and what 'services' would meet his 'need'. Yet by taking time (something social workers don't do nearly enough off) and being patient we see just how much strengths Bill has, we see that there is support and community right under his nose if someone cares to look, and we learn that this support is reciprocal because Bill gives more than he receives. It all comes from giving him a voice, being patient and listening.

I am blessed to be aware of many real-life examples of this but storytelling is important so it is good to have a fictional representation of something which I think is so important. We are so much broader than our presenting needs and furthermore, our communities are much greater than the atomised individual homes that make them up. We are more together.

The novel gets a strong recommendation from me. It will warm your heart and make you reflect on how wonderful our neighbours are (or could be if we bothered to find out).

[Paul Gormley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really hated this book.

Every character is a stereotype - struggling single mother, surly teenager, gay male nurse, Guardian reading do-gooder and curmudgeonly pensioner. Who will all be transformed by their unlikely collaboration.

The premise is interesting - a group of tenants are faced with eviction by an unscrupulous developer and resolve to fight back - but is executed in such a ridiculous and unlikely way. No Housing Association would send out eviction notices without some form of prior consultation and no developer is going to invite a ragtag of residents to their offices to present them with a promotional video.

There is no tension. This is a rose tinted view of community protest and there is no doubt about the final outcome. Where is the real struggle which the author claims to have experience of in her foreword?

No doubt this is written with the best of intentions and I may be overly harsh but this reads like the work of someone who has never faced real struggle, the indifference of corporations or the hostility of the state.

Be nice to each other is a nice message but none of this rings true.

[Esther · Rating 5 out of 5]

A heartwarming and beautifully written book that made me cry in public. All the characters were so well realised that I felt like I actually knew them all in real life, I cannot recommend it highly enough!

[Gem · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful novel that makes you wish for neighbours like these.

Dear Neighbour is a book you’ll want to read in one sitting. It’s gripping from the start: you quickly become absorbed in the lives of the characters on Leodis Street and want to get to the end just to be sure that everything turns out alright for them. When I started reading it, however, I was in the midst of a house move, so I wasn’t able to read as often as I wanted to. But this gave me a different kind of relationship with the book: every spare moment I got, I’d pick it up, excited to get back to the characters and their stories (also to distract myself from my own housing-related stress!). The novel remains enjoyable while engaging important political issues: it’s intelligent and thoughtful without becoming polemical.

Individually, the residents of Leodis Street are experiencing various struggles: loneliness, difficulties at work or school, exhaustion, grief, relationship breakdown, childcare worries... not to mention being evicted from their homes. In another writer’s hands, this could make for a depressing read, but the novel is entertaining and uplifting – in part because the scenes when the characters come together are magical. It’s a pleasure to see them gradually get to know each other and begin to trust one another, and it’s a joy when they decide to band together to take on the ruthless property developer. The dialogue is whip-smart and funny. There are some hilarious moments. In short, despite the very dark (and very real) situation in the novel, there’s also plenty of light.

Read this book if you’re looking for an emotionally rich and socially conscious novel. The characters will stay with you long after you finish it.

[Lynne James · Rating 3 out of 5]

It seems there is a new zeitgeist for novels these days, a plucky bunch of council tenants take on the system and win when their houses are threatened.
Dear Neighbour is one such story, and it's not half bad as these stories go. Ths trouble is, it's not that good either.
It has some nice characters, but they all seem picked to represent something. Alice, the single mum, Ajay, the caring single nurse with the wonderfully over the top mum who wants him to find a husband, Jessie the defensive goth like teenager whose life is turned around by the group of neighbours battling the rich and greedy developers trying to demolish their street, and the lovely librarian who is also a past refugee/ asylum seeker, whose local knowledge and charming activism ( laced with baking) makes him the still calm centre of the group.
Then there is Bill, the oldest inhabitant, who, obviously, starts out a real curmudgeon but has a heart of gold, of course. His back story is actually very interesting and does give the book a much needed different angle.
It was, I must say, a pleasant book, but eminently forgettable and not a little contrived, and, even more sadly, not very believable in its final victory.
Thank you to NetGalley and Sphere, Little Brown for an e arc of this title in return for an honest review.

[Louise Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alice is working hard to provide for her daughter, Mollie. But it's a challenge juggling her job alongside her duties as a single mum in Leeds: a city she barely knows. Her neighbours keep to themselves and as much as she longs for a friend to rely on, she knows that things don't work out that way. Bill has lived on Leodis Street for eighty years. It's where he was born, began his married life and eventually cared for his wife in her final days. Since Sally's death, Bill's home is a place of solitude, his talisman against the unrecognisable world. When the residents of Leodis Street are threatened with eviction, Alice knows she needs to make a stand.

This is a real feelgood story. Although it can also be heartbreaking, it has its humorous moments too. It tells of a group of residents are trying to prevent themselves from being evicted from their homes. The characters are a mixed bunch, but they are well developed. My favourite character was Bill. The story is told from several perspectives. This is a well written and character driven story. I was rooting all the way for residents to come out the winners.

I would like to thank #NetGalley #LittleBrownBookGroupUk and the author #LaneClaireBradley for my ARC of #DearNeighbour in exchange for an honest review.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. I’m from West Yorkshire and so know the area it was set in (the attention to detail in describing the various places that the story takes place in within that area was excellent and I felt like my mind could pan the scene and see exactly where things were. I felt I had a world in my hands). The story was moving and Bradley manages a large cast of characters really well (when not done well I find that I struggle to connect with or remember characters and am less invested in the story overall, this happened with a thriller recently with a similar number of characters). Like the city it is based in the characters are also diverse in a way that felt real not forced and was refreshing. It also deals with important social matters and I think would be an excellent book club book.

[Janelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

You're going to love getting to know the residents of Leodis Street in Leeds.
A collection of people with seemingly not much in common other than their address are brought together through shared adversity. You're hooked in by their stories, their flaws, their hearts and their outlooks on the world.
Jane Claire Bradley is amazing at weaving in back stories and fascinating histories and each character has such a distinct voice.
Dear Neighbour is such an affirming and hopeful book but it does not shy away from tough and important themes including poverty, trauma, estrangement and discrimination.
It's such a well crafted, brilliantly paced and sensitively written book. I laughed and cried throughout.
Buy/ read Dear Neighbour. You will not be disappointed!

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great feel good read about single mum Alice and four of her neighbours whom she barely knows but have come together to try to stop an enforced end of tenancy notice to make way for a more upmarket housing development. With characters aged from eighteen to eighty and each with very different backgrounds they make for a very unlikely quintet but this simple but very well thought out story makes for a very warm read with some very touching moments as well as some good humour. Given the current climate this is a very thoughtful read about how important home is and how vulnerable many are in terms of having that constant in their lives but this gets the message across beautifully.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gave me so many different emotions! From the first chapter I was thoroughly invested in the lives of the Leodis Street residents.

Funny at times heartbreaking at others I'm not afraid to admit I shed a few tears along the way.

I mostly read crime thrillers but wanted something light to read in one weekend and this book was perfect!

Thank you to netgalley and Jane Claire Bradley for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book in return for a true and fair review.

[Alexis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this so fast (for a slow reader that is!) Lovable, nuanced characters in a moving story of activism, community and found family. The structure works very well, skipping around in time and fleshing out the characters' backstories while momentum builds in the present. I definitely shed some tears while reading, but ultimately found it uplifting. And it reactivated my dormant nostalgia for living in Leeds! An impressive debut from Jane Claire Bradley.

[Nichola Gorji · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to read this book in return for an honest review. After reading the blurb I was expecting a light hearted drama so I was completely taken aback by this beautifully written story. It really delved into the topic of community spirit and was so heartfelt and emotional. A fabulous cast of characters from all different backgrounds and cultures who came together to form a formidable force. This book is the true definition of feel good. Highly recommended.

[Nichola Gorji · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to read this book in return for an honest review. After reading the blurb I was expecting a light hearted drama so I was completely taken aback by this beautifully written story. It really delved into the topic of community spirit and was so heartfelt and emotional. A fabulous cast of characters from all different backgrounds and cultures who came together to form a formidable force. This book is the true definition of feel good. Highly recommended.

[Les]

Lovely, easy to read story about 5 groups of residents from one street who find themselves threatened with eviction from the house they call home. Each home houses a different character that brings a different dynamic to the equation and tells how together they take up the battle to protect their home. Really easy to follow. Loved it.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

A heartwarming story apparently based on the premise that everybody who works in housing and regeneration is scum, which is not true. The plot could not happen in this way. I suppose the characters are well-drawn, but they're also overwrought and just too saintly. Glad to have read it and I was glad to have finished it.

[Anna Madeleine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a beautifully kind book. This is a really nourishing read with full characters, every page dripping with JCB's distinctive voice.

The story is a good natured reminder to look outside your front door and reach out.

[Graham Jenkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really enjoyable book with a diverse cast of characters. Of course they all turn out to be So Nice when they're forced to cooperate on a project that's important to each of them, and they have, between them, an amazing range of capabilities.

But it's a fun read!

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a fan of the author's short fiction so I was super excited to read her debut novel! Sometimes you pick up a novel just at the right time - when the world feels so divisive that you need to be reminded of the power of community. I also loved its ode to libraries.

[Rich Pitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is not a classic, but it got me in the feels from the off. It’s pretty much a fictional version of what I’d love my life to become, in time. Rootedness in place, neighbours who become friends, who become family. Wholesome.

[Stephen Dunstan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did not finish.

In places there were nice bits of writing, but from the beginning the story lacked plausibility and in general the style was too cloying and it became hard going to the point I gave up a third of the way through.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really lovely book that celebrates community. The characters are well-written and the story line is great. A real feel-good story. Recommended.

[Annarella · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is story that makes you believe in humankind. Life affirming, heartwarming but also full of sharp social remarks.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely, uplifting book about the power of community with a cast of characters you care about. I needed cheering up and this book did a great job :)

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit predictable and sickly sweet for me.

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

An easy feel-good read about loneliness and finding family wherever you can. It was predictable but enjoyable nonetheless.

[Vicki · Rating 2 out of 5]

five neighbours in Leeds defend their homes from demolition and gentrification. Good story, but the writing not for me. I didn't like the dialogue or third person interior life.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

As usual in my reviews, I will not rehash the plot, or the publisher's blurb.

This is an enjoyable read, that delves into some of the issues facing urban and city dwellers in social housing.

The characters of the residents are well described - they are a total mix of ages, nationalities, genders etc - and all have their own stories to tell. I especially liked Bill, the oldest resident, and understood how he would have felt in the face of potential eviction. The "baddy" was well written too!

I was pleased with the eventual outcome. The book has an overall "feelgood" factor, and shows how people can overcome seemingly hopeless causes if they pull together.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC. All opinions my own.