Martyn Bedford - Writer

Reviews of Flip have been coming in from far and wide – from Dublin to Sydney, from Toronto to Turin. Nice ones, too, thankfully!

The latest is from the South China Morning Post, an English-language newspaper based in Hong Kong, which I remember reading every day when I lived in Kowloon for three or four months, many years ago, while I was backpacking round the world. My mate and I were running low on funds so we holed up in HK to earn some cash teaching English (not very well).
Anyway, I little imagined back then, in 1984, that I’d end up being a published novelist . . . or that one of my books would receive a glowing review in the SCMP.

I won’t reproduce the entire review here, as much of it is taken up with summarising the plot, but here is an extract from the latter part of the piece:

“If you think a novel about a teenager trapped in another teen’s body can only be run-of-the-mill stuff with nowhere new to go, Flip will knock you sideways.
This debut young adults’ novel by Martyn Bedford is a brilliant, totally gripping psychological thriller that is impossible to put down. Bedford is an experienced adult novel writer and it shows.
The strength of Flip lies in the writing as Bedford builds up Alex’s reactions to his situation. The characterization is brilliant, and any reader would empathise totally with Alex. Bedford gets us to invest fully in Alex and go along on the rollercoaster ride he has to take.
The worry with a novel as excellent and as involving as Flip is that the ending may not live up to what has been built over the previous 300 pages. Is Bedford capable of delivering an ending and explanation that will live up to expectations?
Fortunately, there’s no need to panic. The tension throughout the novel is capped off with a dramatic ending that no reader will see coming.
Flip is an extraordinary book with a thrilling plot and superb characters. An outstanding read.”

John Millen, South China Morning Post.