Book Review – Mrs Quinn’s Rise to Fame by Olivia Ford

About the Book

Jennifer Quinn has a secret. Her love of baking has just won her a spot as a contestant on a primetime TV show. It’s only the second time in fifty-nine years that she’s kept something from her beloved husband Bernard.

She’s about to be whisked into an unfamiliar world of cameras, timed challenges and celebrity judges. She could be in with a chance of being crowned the best baker in Britain.

But, as Mrs Quinn’s quiet ambitions turn into unexpected stardom, the other secret she’s been keeping is in danger of resurfacing. It was supposed to stay hidden forever.

Will Mrs Quinn rise to the challenge? Or, will her success become a recipe for disaster?

Format: Hardback (400 pages) Publisher: Michael Joseph
Publication date: 28th March 2024 Genre: Contemporary Fiction

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My Review

Mrs Quinn’s Rise to Fame is a charming story whose moral is it’s never too late to make the most of your talents or to try something new. Jenny Quinn’s talent for baking – both sweet and savoury treats – has been known to family and friends for years, and by her husband Bernard for decades, but now it’s getting a wider audience.

Fans of TV’s Great British Bake Off will enjoy the scenes depicting the filming of the TV show: the weekly themes, the rather stern judges, the presenters with their quips and jokes, the last minute upsets and the contestants’ perilous journeys to the judging table with their creations.

It could all be a bit sickly sweet if it wasn’t for the glimpses we get into events earlier in Jenny’s life, memories often linked in Jenny’s mind to particular baked goods. They’re definitely not all good memories and also evoke a time when social attitudes were very different to today. But recipes also have happier associations – with national events, special occasions and even people. The latter is epitomised by Jenny’s recipe book which contains recipes handed down from her grandmother and her father. (It made me think of my rather scruffy old M&S cookbook with its additional scribbled recipes and pages stuck together with various foodstuffs as evidence of its use.)

I particularly enjoyed the portrayal of the tender, loving relationship between Jenny and Bernard, her husband of almost sixty years. I loved Jenny’s description of their marriage as her proudest recipe, tweaked and modified over time. However, growing old together is bittersweet. On the one hand there’s the easy companionship, the shared experiences and memories, but on the other hand there’s the knowledge that, before long, one of you may be left alone. In keeping a secret from him for sixty years, I was sad that Jenny so underestimated Bernard’s generosity of spirit.

Although very different from the type of book I’d usually read, I found Mrs Quinn’s Rise to Fame as satisfying as a toasted teacake on a cold winter’s afternoon. I can see a spin-off recipe book in the making.

I received a proof copy courtesy of Michael Joseph.

In three words: Charming, tender, heart-warming
Try something similar: The Golden Girls’ Getaway by Judy Leigh

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About the Author

Olivia Ford has spent the last ten years in entertainment TV, most recently as a story producer. Olivia is a graduate of the Faber Academy where she wrote the beginnings of Mrs Quinn’s Rise to Fame, which was longlisted for the 2021 Women’s Prize Trust’s Discoveries Prize. Raised in Lincolnshire, Olivia now lives in London.