Book Launch: 30th March at Bookhaus
This book has been a long time in the making and I was delighted to launch it at Bookhaus on 30th March 2026.
It was a fantastic evening, standing room only and the bookshop SOLD OUT of copies! I was joined by novelist Ali Bacon for a trip to this newly created country… The People’s Republic of Love
With wine and cheese straws, we had some lively conversation – considering narcissism, island utopias and what happens to a person if the self they curate for online display becomes too real.
Check out the photos!
About the book
Tamsin is an engineer who likes to remain firmly behind the scenes. However, when her best friend gets caught up in a twisted, life-threatening reality show, she must follow Charlotte across the ocean to a place where there is no escaping the spotlight, the infamous People’s Republic of Love.
The People’s Republic of Love considers where the proliferation of influencers in our society might take us. Visibility has the power to sell goods, drive movements and win elections. Being seen matters, but what happens when the self created for public display becomes more vital than the life underneath? Will unshared experiences become ghostly, as though they never happened?
This is a novel about intimacy in an age of performance, about friendship as rescue, and about asking: who are you when nobody is watching?
The People’s Republic of Love balances beautifully in that strange space between the online world and the real world, caught between desire and emptiness, offering glamorous highs and horrifying lows. A smart, scary and ingenious read – Aliya Whiteley
SRL Publishing is the world’s first climate-positive independent publisher.
