Did you spot the release of this amazing book of short stories with a twist?  It was released last week, and is a definite must read. Each story tells a part fiction part fact back story about what drove a person to become the world renowned person he/she became.  The last few words of each chapter reveals who the person is – can you guess before the big reveal?

At the time of writing this Backstories is No. 1 in Amazon UK’s “Most Wished For in Fiction Short Stories” list!

Backstories is available in paperback, e-book and audiobook. 

The people featured in the 14 stories come from all parts of the world, and after reading many of the stories I was straight onto Google to find out how much of the stories were true – I certainly learnt plenty of new things about these people .  Each story is approximately 20 minutes reading time, but will give plenty of thinking/discussion time after that. 

As the author says  “What I want is to find the spark, to dig down into their pain, their passions and their imperfections, and show you our heroes as they truly are. “ 

This is a book that you will be talking and thinking about long after you finish reading it.  A book that will appeal to readers that like their fiction dark, though perhaps a bit dark for my taste, they were excellently written, included interesting facts and certainly made me think.   I recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about well known people, and enjoy the fun of working out who each story is about before it is revealed.  Not all of the people are actually named at the end, sometime strong clues are given instead.  So if the person is not familiar to you it may involve a little more sleuthing – all part of the enjoyment. 

Simon Van der Velde is giving 30% of all profits from Backstories to Stop Hate UK, The North East Autism Society and Friends of the Earth.

You can purchase Backstories by Simon Van der Velde from all the usual places, but here are some links to make it easier:

http://bit.ly/Goodreads-Backstories

http://bit.ly/Amazon-Backstories

http://bit.ly/BookBub-Backstories

 Audible: https://adbl.co/3rw4boT

To find out more about this amazing book, and the author, visit the author’s website on https://www.simonvandervelde.com/      and find him on Twitter at @simonvdvwriter

I wish you happy reading, and good guessing!. All the best. Emma