Holly Seddon
October 2025
My Review
A normal day, Carrie is heading home after work to her partner Emma and daughter Clementine, Frankie and Otis are on a romantic weekend away in the countryside and Mrs Dabb is eagerly awaiting the return of her 13yr old daughter Bunny from school on what is an important day of the year for them both.
Unassuming lives on a normal day until the following message reaches their phones…. Missiles are set to destroy the south of England in fifty-nine minutes. Everyone should seek immediate shelter. Everyone reading it in disbelief, believing it is yet another test as messages have been sent before but usually are followed by this is a test.
Riding along on the wave of three people who have 59 minutes to reunite with their loved ones before nuclear missiles hit London. Holly has taken us through three lives in 59 minutes. Constant updates as the clock ticks down, the sheer terror of people trying to get home.
Carrie stood on the underground platform heads through the crowds to the exit to get out but the gates are locked and the police are refusing to let anyone in or out. It is heaving with frantic commuters, all trains at a standstill. All screens playing the same message as on their phones.
Bunny has done the unthinkable and gone off on her own instead of coming home. Normally a good girl, this is so out of character. Worse still her mum has not let her have a mobile so Mrs Dabb has no way to contact her. Not that it would help, all phone lines are down, all communication is down, taken over for the emergency services.
Frankie and Otis arrived at their holiday cottage, not realising what is happening until they turn on the TV. It dawns on them that whilst they are out of the missile zone they have no food or water. So begins their stressful and frightening trip to get food.
59 minutes is a hell of a read, you can feel the adrenaline coursing through the characters, the anger, the worry, the fear, the hopelessness in their voices.
Holly weaves through the minutes of each characters journey taking us on a ride through their lives to the present moment. Their thoughts their wish lists, their what if’s.
Whilst the story is fiction the facts of what would happen are not.
This is not for the faint hearted, but it will have you gripped.
About:
If you knew you had fifty-nine minutes until everything and everyone you love would be lost forever, what would you do with that time?
It’s an ordinary evening. People are coming home from work, cooking dinner for their children, cuddling on sofas with their lovers. And then the message arrives, shattering everyone’s worlds:
Missiles are set to destroy England in fifty-nine minutes. Everyone should seek immediate shelter.
59 minutes follows the journey of three women trying to make it home to and protect their families. The journeys should be simple, but with a lost schoolchild seeking help, a teenage daughter suddenly going missing, and dangerous criminals on the prowl, there is peril at every corner.
