Tag: NetGalley

BookReview – The Beach at Doonshean by Penny Feeny @Aria_Fiction

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About the Book

In Ireland, the past never dies…

Long ago, on a windswept Irish beach, a young father died saving the life of another man’s child.

Thirty years later, his widow, Julia, decides to return to this wild corner of Ireland to lay the past to rest. Her journey sparks others: her daughter Bel, an artist, joins her mother in Ireland, while son Matt and daughter-in-law Rachael, at home in Liverpool, embark on some soul-searching of their own.

As the threads of past and present intertwine, Julia’s family confront long-buried feelings of guilt, anger, fear and desire. Only then can they allow the crashing waves of the beach at Doonshean to bond them together once again.

Format: e-book (416 pages) Publisher: Aria
Publication date: 15th August 2019  Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Find The Beach at Doonshean on Goodreads

Purchase The Beach at Doonshean from Amazon.co.uk [link provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme]

My Review

If you’re looking for a book that explores the dynamics and challenges of family life and relationships as well as the lasting impact that past events can have on the lives of those involved, then you need look no further than The Beach at Doonshean. Furthermore if, like Julia, you believe that coincidence is much more common than you imagine, you certainly won’t be disappointed. And for good measure, there are lovely descriptions of the landscape and coastline of western Ireland.

‘At its lowest ebb, the full wild beauty of the strand was exposed: the glistening of seaweed at the shoreline, the grill of lacy foam, the scattering of shells. And all around her, the rocks rose like exotic hanging gardens, rich with jeweller clumps of sea thrift and mallow.’

The sections of the book focussing on Matt and Rachael as they settle into their new home in Liverpool could seem like a separate story, perhaps even a separate book. However, the author skilfully brings together the two storylines when events take a dramatic turn bringing echoes of the past.

What unites all the characters in the book is the fact they are adjusting to changes in their lives: Julia, facing retirement and looking for new purpose; Bel, returning from adventures abroad and needing to rebuild her health; Matt and Rachael, making a new home for their son, Danny, and pondering their future; brothers Kieran and Tom, returning home to Ireland, the latter with unexpected new responsibilities and unsure of the welcome he’ll receive.

The book ends on a positive note with the possibility of new beginnings, second chances as well as the prospect of fresh goals and challenges making The Beach at Doonshean an absorbing, acutely-observed family drama.

In three words: Heart-warming, emotional, absorbing
Try something similar: Tell Me Where You Are by Moira Forsyth

About the Author

Penny Feeny
Penny Feeny has lived and worked in Cambridge, London and Rome. Since settling in Liverpool many years ago she has been an arts administrator, editor, radio presenter, advice worker, and has brought up five children. Her short fiction has been widely published and broadcast and won several awards. Her first novel, That Summer in Ischia, was one of the summer of 2011’s bestselling titles.

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#BookReview Untitled: The Real Wallis Simpson by Anna Pasternak

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UntitledAbout the Book

Who was the real Wallis: an opportunistic American social climber, a master manipulator or the true love of Edward’s life? Amid the cacophony of condemnation her story has become obfuscated. Untitled is an intimate biography of one of the most misunderstood women in British royal history.

His charisma and glamour ensured him the status of a rock star prince. Yet Edward gave up the British throne, the British Empire and his position as Emperor of India, to marry his true love, American divorcee Wallis Simpson.

So much gossip and innuendo has been levelled at Wallis Simpson that it has become nearly impossible to discern the real woman. Many have wondered why, when Edward could have had anyone he desired, he was smitten with this unusual American woman. As her friend Herman Rogers said to her in 1936 when news of her affair with Edward broke: ‘Much of what is being said concerns a woman who does not exist and never did exist.’

History is mostly perceived from the perspective of his-story. But what about her story? Anna Pasternak’s new book is the first ever to give Wallis a chance and a voice to show that she was a warm, loyal, intelligent woman adored by her friends, who was written off by cunning, influential Establishment men seeking to diminish her and destroy her reputation. As the author argues, far from being the villain of the abdication, she was the victim.

Anna Pasternak is appearing at Henley Literary Festival 2019

Format: e-book (369 pp.)    Publisher: William Collins
Published: 7th March 2019   Genre: Biography, History, Nonfiction

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk  ǀ Hive.co.uk (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find Untitled: The Real Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor on Goodreads

My Review

Anna Pasternak nails her colours pretty unashamedly to the mast when she talks about the book being fuelled by a desire to rehabilitate Wallis in history. Untitled paints the Duchess of Windsor in a positive light, putting forward her side of the story and attempting to quash some, if not all, of the accusations that have been levelled at her. The list of sources and references at the back of the book demonstrate the detailed research undertaken by the author.

I was surprised to learn of the extremes to which the government went in their opposition to the relationship between Edward and Wallis Simpson, including listening in to their private telephone conversations.

However, I was left with a picture of two people so wrapped up in each other that the impact of their actions on others ceased to matter or just simply did not occur to them. At times, the behaviour of Wallis and Edward was either naive or bordered on the crass and their lavish lifestyle was far removed from the experience of the majority of Edward’s subjects. However, no-one with any feelings would surely wish for them the sadness of their final years – declining health, exile and manipulation by others.

Untitled is also the story of a family torn apart by a decision regarded variously as an act of selfishness, betrayal and a failure of duty. The author depicts how the refusal by his mother, Queen Mary, to receive Wallis or even acknowledge her and the decision not to grant the Duchess HRH status became totemic issues for Edward, creating a rift in the Royal Family that was never repaired in his lifetime.

In the Afterword, the author observes that she found herself warming to Edward during the process of researching and writing the book. I’m afraid this reader had the opposite experience. If anything, Edward comes out diminished to my mind. His blind devotion to Wallis is touching but tainted by his seemingly single-minded belief that he should have whatever he wanted in life, regardless of the consequences. As the author observes, ‘His love for Wallis was as selfish and as crucial to his survival as a child’s; it would have been the more loving act to have relinquished her‘.

As for Wallis? I think the author sums it up when she comments, ‘She [Wallis] was powerful – in her effect on Edward – but powerless, in her inability to prevent events from spiralling out of control’.

I received a review copy courtesy of William Collins via NetGalley.

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In three words: Fascinating, detailed, intimate

Try something similar…Chanel’s Riviera: The Cote d’Azur in Peace and War, 1930 – 1944 by Anne de Courcy

About the Author

Anna Pasternak is an author, columnist and journalist. She writes regularly for Sunday Times Style, Conde Nast Traveller, Harper’s Bazaar, and others. She lives in Oxfordshire with her husband and daughter.