Hello,
World Homeless Dayis on Sunday 10thOctober so we wanted to get in touch with you about our incredible client, author of hit memoir Sentenced, Victoria Oak. She wrote Sentenced with co-author Andrew Hawke, the man she invited into her family home in London to avoid him becoming homeless on his return to England after years in a Thai prison. They had never met in person but they became lifelong friends through their letter writing between London and Bangkok. This single act of pure kindness stands out to so many early readers and reviewers of this book.
Victoria struggle to pass a homeless person without stopping to talk, share food, offer money. "I ask the homeless person about their life and finish by asking how much they need for a place for the night. Usually it's £13 but sometimes people proudly tell me they've found places cheaper. I give them what they ned for that night. Then I get them some food and drink."
On helping her co-author, Victoria says, "I helped Andy because he would have come out of prison with nowhere to live and therefore be unable to get benefits or medical help without a fixed address."
Victoria hopes that from awareness days like this and homeless campaigns that are often prevalent around Christmas/Winter times, that people will consider treating homeless people as they would like to be treated themselves. "If the opportunity comes up to help someone, don't let it pass you by."
If you'd like to speak to Victoria, get a copy of the amazing book, Sentenced, that shares insights into how Andy and Victoria became friends, or if you'd like Victoria to write something about her book, her story, her friendship or her attitude to homelessness, please let us know! Please see more information about the book below too.
Thanks,
Helen Lewis
Literally PR
www.literallypr.com
MEDIA INFORMATION SHEET
Sentenced
By Victoria Oak and Andrew Hawke
Potential talking points:
- Parallels between life incarcerated in a prison and life incarcerated in a loveless marriage.
- Forgiveness, freedom and friendship. How an unlikely friendship developed and endured.
- Building a life-long friendship over seven years purely through letter writing.
- Writing a dual-narrative memoir, together, over a period of seven years - reliving the traumatic as well as the incredible times they'd experienced separately and together.
- The impact of a long divorce, the rediscovery of a new, more authentic identity later in life, and the role of renewed spiritualty and healing.
- Living with Lyme's disease, which forced a total change in lifestyle; from being unable to run, practice yoga, play tennis and golf, to struggling to get out of bed.
- Life in Portugal where Victoria currently lives, during multiple lockdowns, and the positive opportunity to focus on meditation, recovery, healing, psychic development and spirituality.
- The next phase of friendship with Andy and plans for the future.
About the Book
A true story following the remarkable, long-lasting and unlikely friendship that develops between two strangers - a London housewife bringing up four children and a British prisoner incarcerated in Thailand.
As they begin to exchange letters, each tells a personal story of being sentenced - Vicky in a desperate and loveless marriage; Andy within the walls of one of the world's most notorious prisons.
What unfolds is a moving tale of entrapment and freedom, love and friendship, and the human capacity to withstand and overcome immense pain and suffering in the face of adversity... with the right people on your side.
About the Author
On paper, Victoria Oak is like any other middle-class woman of a certain age. That is until you meet her. She refuses to fit into a mould. Born ten minutes before her twin, she was, from the start several shades darker, a throwback from her Indian great grandfather, nicknamed the Aga Khan by her Godmother.
Victoria read Drama and English at Birmingham University. She had steered clear of the careers department and threw herself into set design, fashion modelling, waitressing and painting murals. She was never out of a job but when she fell off a ladder 7 months pregnant, she decided to call it a day.
She and her husband shared a passion for travelling and sport but well before the children were adult, she realised the marriage was over. She completed the Road to Santiago in May 2012, placing 2000 prayer stones along the Camino asking for her dear friend Andy's release from the Thai prison. When she returned, she asked for a divorce and a five-year battle through the courts ensued. It was during this miserable time that Andy was released from prison, came to stay in her home for 18 months and in this time, they wrote ‘Sentenced' together. After the divorce Victoria had what she calls her gap year. The Inca trail in Peru, Ayahuasca in the Amazon, a retreat in Sedona and New Zealand, and finally Australia.
Since then, Victoria has spent four years editing 'Sentenced'. Just before Covid reared its head, she caught Pneumonia which triggered Lyme's disease. Hardly able to get out of bed or the bath, she determined to get ‘Sentenced' published within the year.
ESSENTIAL DETAILS
Title:Sentenced
Author:Victoria Oak & Andrew Hawke
Genre:Non-Fiction, Memoir
Publisher:Grosvenor House Publishing
Publication date:January 2021
Availability:Paperback, eBook, International distribution
ISBN:9781839753909
Page count:430
Price: £10
Online:
www.instagram.com/sentencedbook
Media requests & enquiries:info@literallypr.com,www.literallypr.com, +44 (0) 8709619069
