M Jonathan Lee is an award-winning British author. His debut novel, The Radio, was nationally shortlisted in The Novel Prize 2012, a prize for unpublished authors.
Career
The Radio was published by Troubador in April 2013 and was described as "very moving...and wonderfully well observed" by Yvette Huddleston of The Yorkshire Post. It is a black comedy which tackles the difficult subject of suicide. In an interview with 'Female First' magazine in June 2013, Jonathan described the suicide of his older brother in 2005 and explained that "...very cathartic sharing this in The Radio." It is part of the 'The' trilogy and has since sold out its first print run. He is currently negotiating the film rights. In March 2016, The Radio was voted "Book of the Month" for March 2016 by The Dadness. He began writing seriously at the age of 9 at which point he self-published a magazine which ran for six issues and sold more than 500 copies. Since then, he has written a number of short stories and eagerly hoarded away journal after journal of ideas before finally writing The Radio. He is a regular on BBC Radio Sheffield's Live-ish comedy show and appeared at Sheffield's Off the Shelf Festival and Doncaster's Turn The Page in 2013 and 2014. In January 2015, his second novel, The Page was published through Troubador and third novel A Tiny Feeling of Fear published by Solopreneur Publishing in September 2015. A Tiny Feeling of Fear tells the story of Andrew Walker, a successful businessman who appears to be a happy, well-adjusted man, with the respect and admiration of his colleagues – but behind closed doors, his private life is a mess. The novel is in some ways autobiographical and deals with mental health issues and ultimately is a story of hope. In November 2015, Jonathan travelled to Boston, MA to begin work on a rock-biography about US alternative rock band, Hallelujah the Hills. In 2016, Jonathan featured in the Hallelujah the Hills video for the new single, "We have the Perimeter Surrounded". He is a regular contributor and now writes monthly on mental health issues for the Huffington Post. In May 2017, Jonathan announced that he had signed a new deal with Hideaway Fall publishers. In the same month, the film “Hidden” was released filmed by Simon Gamble and based on the book A Tiny Feeling of Fear. It is filmed in a documentary format and charts Jonathan Lee’s life and discusses his own mental health issues. In August 2017, The Big Issue described his fourth novel Broken Branches as “an examination of grief and loss in a unique way”. In an interview Jonathan spoke about mental health and the establishment of a new mental health forum in his area. Broken Branches was voted book of the month for August 2017 in Candis Magazine. In Spring 2018, his fifth novel, Drift Stumble Fall was released.
