It’s 1994. The music industry is mourning Kurt Cobain, Right Said Fred have re-emerged as an ‘ironic’ pop act and John Major is the country’s prime minister. Nothing is as it should be.
Emma is hurtling towards her 27th birthday, riddled with anxiety that her idols Joplin, Hendrix and Morrison all died aged 27, and now Kurt Cobain has gone too. Will Emma be next to join The Twenty Seven Club?
Emma, a rock music fan from Hull, with a penchant for a flaming Drambuie and a line of coke with her best mate Dave down The Angel, is troubled. Trev, her whippet, has IBS, and her job ordering bathroom supplies at the local caravan company is far from challenging. So when her dad, Tel, informs her that her music idol, Kurt Cobain has killed himself aged 27, Emma is consumed with anxiety.
Why have so many legendary musicians gone aged 27? Is there a link between the members of the so-called Twenty Seven Club? Is this why her mum had an affair and left them? And could Emma be about to join The Twenty Seven Club too?
The 27 Club is a nostalgic, often humorous, drug and booze-infused tale of friendship, discovery and anxiety as Emma tries, for once, to focus on life, rather than death.
Lucy is a writer with a passion for mental health awareness, music, comedy and nostalgia. Her first work of fiction, a dark comedy called The Twenty Seven Club, explores music fandom, mental health and media sensationalism. Her second novel, Parklife (the sequel to The Twenty Seven Club), delves into addiction, recovery, friendship and hope, and is set against a backdrop of Northern life and 90s Brit Pop. Lucy’s third novel, a romcom (to be announced soon!), will be published in summer 2023 by Harper North.
In March 2022, The Twenty Seven Club was adapted for the stage by Lucy’s husband, actor and director Chris Connel, for Live Theatre’s Elevator Festival.
Lucy has also written two non-fiction books - Snowflake (published by Welbeck in Jan 2023) and A Series of Unfortunate Stereotypes – Naming and Shaming Mental Health Stigmas (Trigger, 2018).
Lucy has written extensively in the media, her words appearing in The Independent, The I Paper, NME, Red Magazine, Metro, Den of Geek, Huff Post and many more. She is also a former columnist with Sarah Millican’s Standard Issue magazine. She is passionate about challenging mental health stigma - particularly addiction stigma - and has worked with a wide range of mental health charities including: Recovery Connections, Mind, Time to Change, Student Minds, Action on Postpartum Psychosis, Road to Recovery Trust, St Andrew’s Healthcare and Newcastle United Foundation.
She has also worked on behalf of Mind and Recovery Connections, providing script advice for TV soaps and dramas regarding mental health (including addiction) portrayals.
She is, unfortunately, a bit of an expert when it comes to living with anxiety, and speaks openly about growing up with panic attacks and health anxiety.
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