Before you know it, it spreads. Elsewhere across the globe, it emerges, small outbreaks at first, contained groups of people, young and old, and suddenly it's a plague - and ten days later it's killing people. The hospitals are overflowing and there is no cure. There is a paranoid panic which sets friend against friend, neighbour against neighbour. Where does the world go from here? Radio remains my priority,” he insists. “You can always tell, I think, if a presenter is not putting their show first, and it’s important for me to keep mine as sharp as possible. But I do love writing, and so most mornings you’ll find me at my desk.” The now 64-year-old joined Radio 1 in 1986 and became its breakfast show presenter in 1988. He stayed until 2001, when he transferred to Radio 5 Live’s afternoon show. In 2010 he took over Radio 2’s drivetime slot, but found his career there crashing to an untimely halt in 2018 after one of the Beeb’s routine shake-ups.

If you’re going to write a book about a new global pandemic with unusual, unheard of symptoms I highly recommend you don’t open with a scene where the virus is in full swing, and everyone is in the know – except the reader – who has no idea what is going on in what turned into a very long scene with people acting crazy with no explanation given. I shouldn’t have to read the synopsis for a book to make sense. My opinion – only a really short teaser scene would’ve worked here. The son of teachers, he cut his teeth on hospital radio and BBC Radio Nottingham, his ambition always to climb to the top at Radio 1. The breakfast show, landed in 1988, was a dream.Between 1995 and 1998 Mayo presented a TV version of his popular radio feature, Confessions. From 1999 to 2001, Simon Mayo was the original host of the National Lottery game show Winning Lines. Books last, they endure,” he says. “I love going into a bookshop, or the supermarket while doing the weekly shop, and seeing copies of my novel. There’s something very gratifying about that. It feels solid, like an accomplishment. And I do like that.” Wow. What may seem like an improbable premise via the use of actual evidence the author makes the whole thing feel all too plausible and just to reassure those who don’t want to read about Covid - this is not a Covid story. It’s a well developed thriller where tension builds incredibly well so you actually feel the rising fear factor. It’s very intriguing and although I do figure out part of the story early on, there is no way I figure most of it out, not by any stretch of the imagination! This is an excellent conspiracy theory thriller, it’s exciting, full of danger especially from feral behaviour provoked by fear and knowing what we do now is sadly all too believable! It���s riveting and hard to put down. I think you only had to listen to the endings of the various programmes I was doing to know it’s a very personal affair and when things are changed and ended in the style that happened to me, that certainly has an effect on you.

An excellent conspiracy theory thriller, it's exciting, full of danger... it's riveting and hard to put down' Plotline aside, I thought the characters were great and their own storyline of loss and grief were well handled. The interplay between father and daughter was lovely and I was really invested in the major players of the book. This was my first try at a conspiracy thriller and I very much enjoyed the tension and suspense. A copy of this book was kindly provided to me by Netgalley and Doubleday in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! **

Knife Edge TV series

Elsewhere across the globe, it emerges, small outbreaks at first, contained groups of people. young and old, and suddenly it's a plague - and ten days later it's killing people. The hospitals are overflowing and there is no cure. There is paranoid panic which sets friend against friend, neighbour against neighbour. Where does the world go from here? At least we didn't have too much of a problem with Jess, Lilly's daughter. She disappeared by moving to her dad's place early on in the novel, not returning till near the conclusion of things. There has been plenty to celebrate in the interim. He adores being on Drivetime at Greatest Hits, is drawing a young fanbase with Kermode on their Sony podcast, and was awarded a MBE last year. He admits he is an “introvert”, and always has been, despite the high-octane Radio 1 breakfast shows and roadshows and whooping audience around him on Top of the Pops.

He says: “It was the biggest show in the country and what you played and didn’t play made a huge difference. It was an extraordinary privilege, it’s not really a proper job.” And the station then signing Ken [Bruce] was like signing Lionel Messi; it was a statement to say that we are very, very ambitious, and that we have a very good format. We’re playing these fantastic songs for an audience of people who love radio, and who’ve grown up with radio. The last Rajar figures we had were great, and Ken hadn’t even joined then. So it feels as if we have a lot of momentum, and that’s a very nice feeling to have.” Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo, presenters and critics on Kermode & Mayo’s Take A well written and researched book that covered just about every aspect and all the espionage of the Skripal poisoning affair.

So Simon will keep writing, managing to find time between radio commitments and at weekends and holidays, particularly when he enjoys time in Suffolk where he finds a quiet corner. Coffee and a comfortable chair are his requirements, he says, so the radio is turned off. There was obviously a lot of research that has gone into the book on these topics and I thank Simon Mayo for the way he discusses them. It’s no secret that Simon Mayo is a lover of books - he even hosts a literary podcast. As an author himself he has written many books including Classic Confessions, based on the hit feature from his radio shows and the novel series Itch, which has now been made into a children’s action-adventure TV show. And it’s writing, he suggests, that gives him the kind of lasting satisfaction he doesn’t necessarily get elsewhere.