Tag: contemporary fiction

#BookReview Charity by Madeline Dewhurst @EyeandLightning

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CharityAbout the Book

Edith, an elderly widow with a large house in an Islington garden square, needs a carer. Lauren, a nail technician born in the East End, needs somewhere to live. A rent-free room in lieu of pay seems the obvious solution, even though the pair have nothing in common. Or do they?

Why is Lauren so fascinated by Edith’s childhood in colonial Kenya? Is Paul, the handsome lodger in the basement, the honest broker he appears? And how does Charity, a Kenyan girl brutally tortured during the Mau Mau rebellion, fit into the equation?

Format: Paperback (304 pages) Publisher: Lightning Books
Publication date: 26 April 2021 Genre: Contemporary Fiction

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My Review

Lauren and Edith are two women who could not be more different in age or background. Edith, now an elderly widow and increasingly frail, grew up in Kenya and married a British soldier. Lauren is a young Londoner with an ambition to qualify as a beauty technician and open her own nail salon. In the meantime, she’s supplementing her income by taking on the role of live-in housekeeper and companion to Edith. However, as hinted at early in the book, there is a connection between them but one of which Edith is unaware.

Although rather set in her ways and a stickler for doing things correctly, Edith demonstrates a trusting and generous attitude towards others. For example, her first impression of Lauren is that she has ‘a delightful smile, open and spontaneous’. However, there are mysteries about Edith’s past including the reason for her estrangement from her daughter, Joanna, or why her sleep is frequently disturbed by nightmares involving a girl called Mary. On the other hand, Lauren’s behaviour towards her new employer, although kindly at times, is less laudable. For reasons the reader will discover, she justifies her actions by the belief she is entitled to benefit from Edith’s relative good fortune.

The author gives herself the difficult job of presenting Edith and Lauren in such a way that the reader can understand, if not forgive, the worst elements of their characters. I think she largely succeeds. Both characters come to life on the page, whether that’s through Edith’s precise and grammatically correct way of speaking (what Lauren would call ‘posh’) or Lauren’s more colloquial style.

The book includes flashbacks to 1950s East Africa during the period of the Mau Mau uprising, told partly from the point of view of a sixteen-year-old girl, Charity. Many of her experiences are shocking and hard to read. Equally disturbing are the reactionary views expressed by Edith’s family and future husband about the indigenous people of Kenya. Even if one man’s freedom fighter is another’s terrorist, references to native Kenyans as ‘savages’ who need to be rehabilitated into responsible citizens were upsetting to read. Unpleasant contemporary parallels came to mind, such as China’s treatment of the Uighur people. Although I had heard of the Mau Mau uprising, I knew very little detail about it. Charity has rectified that omission.

The book is an assured and impressive debut that reveals the truth about a shocking period in Britain’s colonial history. And what starts as an exploration of the dynamics of an intergenerational relationship progresses to something much darker and more complicated; a story of guilt, betrayal, manipulation and revenge.

My thanks to Simon Edge at Eye & Lightning Books for my digital review copy. To read more reviews, follow the blog tour which starts today (see tour banner at the bottom of this post).

In three words: Insightful, authentic, powerful

Try something similar: A Lifetime of Men by Ciahnan Darrell

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Madeline DewhurstAbout the Author

Madeline Dewhurst studied English at Queen’s University Belfast and went on to complete an MA in Research and a PhD at Queen Mary, University of London.  She also has an MA in Creative Writing from Royal Holloway. She is an academic in English and Creative Writing at the Open University.

Her previous writing includes fiction, journalism and drama. Charity, which was longlisted for the Bath Novel Award, is her first novel. She now lives in Kent. (Photo credit: Facebook author page)

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Charity Blog Tour

#BookReview Lost Property by Helen Paris @RandomTTours @TransworldBooks

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Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for Lost Property by Helen Paris. My thanks to Anne at Random Things Tours for inviting me to take part in the tour and to Hayley at Transworld for my digital review copy. Lost Property is available now as an ebook and will be published in hardback on 13th May 2021.

Lost PropertyAbout the Book

Everything that’s lost belongs somewhere. Dot Watson just needs to be found.

Dot Watson’s life is stuck. She wasn’t meant to be single at this point, or still working in a temporary job she started ten years ago. She was supposed to be in Paris, falling madly in love, building an exciting career. Instead, every day in Baker Street’s Lost Property office, she diligently catalogues hundreds of lost umbrellas, lone gloves and an alarming number of shoes.

There’s a comfort in her routine that Dot has become quite attached to. But then Mr Appleby arrives at her work asking for help to find his late wife’s purse.

Dot recognises his desperation and grief – and they stir something unexpected in her: determination. As she resolves to help Mr Appleby, what else might she find along the way?

Format: ebook (384 pages)           Publisher: Transworld
Publication date: 15th April 2021 Genre: Contemporary Fiction

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Lost Property GraphicMy Review or Ten Things I Found In Lost Property

  1. The colourful characters who work in the Lost Property department: Anita, she of the capacious (but occasionally very useful) bag; Big Jim, denizen of the Pit where unclaimed items go to die; SmartChoice, the latest recruit from the temp agency; the awful Neil Burrows, boss of the department; and, of course, lovely, Dot Watson.
  2. The humour such as the glorious scene in which Dot is persuaded by Anita to accompany her to a line dancing club, ominously named Descent.
  3. Dot’s touching childhood memories of her beloved father, acting as (Dot) Watson to his Sherlock Holmes as they investigate mysteries such as The Case of the Imperious Sister.
  4. Dot’s instinctive understanding that the value of objects that pass through her hands is often more than just monetary. ‘Ordinary objects, extraordinary objects, objects that contain in their bodies a memory, a moment, a trace of a life lived, a person loved.’
  5. Dot’s deductions about the owners of lost items: their characters, habits or even the destinations they would enjoy visiting. ‘The other day, a man’s aubergine overcoat demanded Amsterdam so directly I was quite taken aback. It was evident in the belt, linked and worn from being pulled too tight, as if the poor chap was forever trying to bolster himself up… Strolling along the Herengracht canal eating a stroopwafel might just remind him of life’s possibilities.’
  6. The need for precision when it comes to recording the details of an item handed in – no, it’s not yellow, it’s golden syrup coloured.
  7. That there’s more than one type of ‘lost property’. For example, the declining memory of Dot’s mother, Gail; the imminent sale of the house Dot shared with her; the dreams and ambitions that go unfulfilled. ‘One can lose things in different ways. One can be out and about living one’s life, exploring exciting new pathways… and yes, perhaps one might lose a bag en route. On the other hand, one may stay put, everything safety-pinned securely in place, and risk losing so much more.’
  8. The sensitivity and insight with which topics such as bereavement, depression and dementia are introduced into the story so that, like a chocolate selection box, there is both light and dark in just the right proportions.
  9. Learning the London Underground at night ‘smells of fast food and repressed devastation’.
  10. The satisfaction that comes from doing a job well. As Dot observes, ‘Few things in my life grant me more pleasure than reuniting property with person, undoing a loss.’

Lost Property made me laugh, made me think and, at times, made me a little tearful. What more can you ask of a book? This is a novel you most certainly don’t want to leave behind on a train or bus; I’d say, make sure you hang on to it for dear life.

In three words: Heartfelt, bittersweet, insightful

Try something similar: Saving Missy by Beth Morrey or The Lost Letters of William Woolf by Helen Cullen

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Helen Paris

About the Author

Helen Paris worked in the performing arts for two decades, touring internationally with her London-based theatre company Curious. After several years living in San Francisco and working as a theatre professor at Stanford University, she returned to the UK to focus on writing fiction. As part of her research for a performance called ‘Lost & Found’, Paris shadowed employees in the Baker Street Lost Property office for a week, an experience that sparked her imagination and inspired this, her first novel. 

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Lost Property Graphic 2