Latest news with #ragsToRiches
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Literary fiction to lure you in: TO THE MOON by Jang Ryujin, THE BOMBSHELL by Darrow Farr, SARASWATI by Gurnaik Johal
To The Moon is available now from the Mail Bookshop TO THE MOON by Jang Ryujin (Bloomsbury £14.99, 304pp) THE latest Korean bestseller to find a space in British bookstores, this follows 20-something friends Eun-sang, Jisong and Dahae, who are united both by their boring jobs at a snack food company and blue-collar backgrounds that set them apart from their cossetted peers. For Dahae, a studio flat where the toilet isn't permanently visible seems like an impossible dream, but then ambitious amateur investor Eun-sang introduces her to cryptocurrency. Following Eun-sang's lead, she sinks her life savings into 'Ethereum' and they begin to skyrocket – only Jisong is sceptical, believing her friends have lost sight of what's important in life. With its likeable trio, this zeitgeisty rags-to-riches tale is gently diverting, quietly and pleasingly subverting the narrative arc you might expect. THE BOMBSHELL by Darrow Farr (Atlantic £17.99, 416pp) SET in Corsica in 1993, the egotistical anti-heroine of this mostly page-turning rollercoaster ride is 17-year-old Séverine Guimard. The entitled daughter of the island's French prefect, she sees her future as a film star. But when she is kidnapped by Corsican revolutionaries, her life takes an abrupt left-turn. Forget Stockholm Syndrome, before long she's reading about decolonisation alongside her captors and embracing a starring role as the Kalashnikov-wielding face of their cause. But is hers really the zeal of the convert or is her true motivation her burning desire for the group's handsome leader Bruno and a wish to settle old scores? The more sober final quarter, set in 2013, provides a satisfactory conclusion to a debut that's part hostage drama, part political thriller, and increasingly large part screwed up love story. SARASWATI by Gurnaik Johal (Serpent's Tail £16.99, 384pp) JOHAL came to notice with his award-winning debut collection of stories We Move, featuring an interconnected cast largely drawn from west London's British-Punjabi community. In his hugely ambitious first novel, he spins another narrative web but on a much grander scale. At the centre is the holy Saraswati River, which according to myth once flowed through northern India before disappearing below ground. When the water again seeks the surface, it's instantly seized upon by nationalist politicians who proclaim an opportunity for the country's economic, environmental and spiritual rebirth. Johal's linked characters, who during the course of the novel piece together a shared lineage dating back centuries, are all caught up. It's often hard to hold onto the connecting threads in an intense, dizzying tale that shifts from Bollywood film sets to deep sea expeditions to eco-sabotage missions. However, Johal's expansive vision and propulsive story- telling mark him as a talent.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Josie Gibson buys million pound mansion in Bath after living in a caravan and working as a cleaner
When Josie Gibson first started working, she lived in a caravan. As a call centre worker for insurance firm AXA in Bristol she earned around £10,000 and topped her income with a sideline as a cleaner. But 15 years on and the television presenter is worth around £1m and has splashed out on a stunning £1.1million mansion in Bath - ten miles from where she grew up. Now a much loved This Morning host and star of the 2023 series of I'm A Celeb, she has spent her riches on the four-bedroom, three-bathroom cottage on the outskirts of the historical city is set on three acres and also has a conservatory and outbuildings where she will live with her seven-year-old son Reggie. She also has big plans for the property. She has already submitted a planning application for 'erection of two storey side extension, entrance and single storey extension with balcony and new first floor and roof for annex building'. A friend of the star told The Mail: 'Josie is the fairytale rags to riches story. 'She used to live in caravan, she had very little but she has transformed her life thanks to her bubbly personality. She went out to the jungle so the fee from that would have helped to the house, for sure.' Josie, 40, rose to fame 15 years ago when she won the reality television show Big Brother. She won the 11th series in 2010 after getting into a relationship with housemate John James Parton. The couple later appeared in a one-off fly on the wall show following their lives together called Josie and John James: What Happened Next, before later splitting up. Josie quickly carved out a career as a TV personality, appearing in 2011 in her own three-part reality TV series There's Something About Josie. She joined ITV's This Morning as a competition announcer in 2019 and became a presenter in 2021. Before she became famous after appearing in Big Brother in 2010, she used to earn money by cleaning people's shoes and catching the bus around her local town trying to sell the product. In a far cry away from her usual glitzy TV appearances, she then moved on to grease the inside of washing machine bins in a factory before landing her job at AXA. A friend of the star told The Mail: 'Josie is the fairytale rags to riches story. 'She used to live in a caravan, she had very little but she has transformed her life thanks to her bubbly personality. She went out to the jungle so the fee from that would have helped to the house, for sure.' Josie found love during her time in the Big Brother house with Australian housemate John James Parton but they split a year later. In 2018 she welcomed her son Reggie with her now ex-partner Terry Bond and bought a £550,000 house in her home city of Bristol where she grew up in 2022.
