The world was at his feet, when he was struck down by excruciating Migraine which lasted almost a year . Thus began a year in which his life fell slowly apart. Unable to write, barely able to function, he applied to be a guard on a Sydney  train – and the result is the searing memoir, Train Lord. At times painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny, the memoir moves between the many oddities that he comes across in his working day and his own struggles to get back to himself, truly capturing what it is to be young and alive in today’s world. Jillian Taylor and her colleagues at Penguin/Michael Joseph were delighted to read and pre-empt this true one-off, as Taylor said: ‘You write with devastating awareness and directness about painful circumstances and pain itself. You have the most distinctive voice, by turns mischievous and openhearted, earthy and soaring. You have managed to deliver an intimate portrait of a fierce, flawed period in your life that is both relatable and hopeful.’ Rights director Chantal Noel compared it with masterpieces such as Mary Karr’s The Liar’s Club and Tara Westover’s Educated.