Mark Watson is probably best known for his comedy work, having been one of the most diligently hard-working and hilarious comedians on the circuit for ages.

It began with promise, but ultimately didn't really go anywhere with most of the characters and the ending was very unsatisfying. It’s been some time since I cried at a book, but this one packs an emotional punch that all but made it an inevitability.And I’m not implying that’s insufficient cause because I definitely know things impact us and affect us differently. The main character James is easy to engage with as our the rest of the cast comprising estranged sister Sal, ex girlfriend Michaela, former best friend Karl, flat mate Steffi, his mum Jean and train stewardess Gina. I was emotionally invested in the outcome, and found the prose very readable, despite some minor head hopping. Of course the book is about those ‘left behind’ as much as James and we spend time with his sister Sally as well as his mother Jean.

Either way it needs a big trigger warning as the entire book is about someone planning to suicide and how they got to that point. We learn he had a falling out with his sister, his former girlfriend left him and his best friend sacked him. When my husband and I moved in together and unpacked our books we were delighted to find that between us we had the full Mark Watson oeuvre!I just kept reading, and reading, turning the pages, as it's such an easy story to become invested in. But he doesn’t see that as proof of anything other than a panicked attempt to assuage their own guilt. From a moving train he sends his suicide note as an SMS to all his contacts just before midnight before switching on the flight mode and ponder his life till he reaches his destination. There was a bit of a bland “Let’s talk more” underlying message but I hardly expected anything else. And I was surprised that despite my anger at the main character, the further I got into the book the more it managed to also make me feel sympathetic towards him and put aside my anger.

It felt like we weren't supposed to care about that as much, just because we didn't know her as well. I was also surprised to see (in my Kindle version) the publisher had not included links to suicide support lines. The main characters were all people with their good and bad points, and despite the subject matter there was some quite good humour. I detest the idea that people contemplating suicide might think they too could have their friends panicked and desperately trying to save them ‘in time’. Funny and wise, tender and deeply moving, Contacts is a beautiful story about the weight of loneliness, the importance of kindness – and how it's never too late to reach out.James Chiltern gets on the sleeper train from London to Edinburgh with the sole intention of ending his life in the city where he scattered his father’s ashes four years before. Ebooks fulfilled through Glose cannot be printed, downloaded as PDF, or read in other digital readers (like Kindle or Nook). It shows that while technology can often isolate people and stop a real conversation from taking place, it can also be a fast, safe way to keep in touch.