Written by Salley Vickers

 

 

 

 

Grandmothers is the story of three very different women and their relationship with the younger generation:

fiercely independent Nan, who leads a secret life as an award-winning poet when she is not teaching her grandson Billy how to lie; glamorous Blanche, deprived of the company of her beloved granddaughter Kitty by her hostile daughter-in-law, who finds solace in rebelliously taking to drink and shop lifting; and shy, bookish Minna who in the safety of shepherd’s hut shares with her surrogate granddaughter Rose her passion for reading.

The outlook of all three women subtly alters when through their encounters with each other they discover that the past is always with us and that we go on learning and changing until the very end.

 

Grandmothers is a beautifully observed, sometimes subversive, often tender and elegiac novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Librarian.

 

 

 

 

A Very Touching Read!   

 

This is the first novel I have read by Salley Vickers but it most certainly won’t be the last!

As the title implies, this is about grandmothers – three of them, in fact. Unknown to each other in the beginning, they each have very different relationships with their grandchildren. Nan often looks after her grandson Billy and they have a strong relationship; Blanche loves both her son’s children, but has a really special relationship with Kitty whilst Minna has an honourable granddaughter in Rose. These three women come from varying walks of life and as they become acquainted, it has a profound impact on all of them.

What a wonderful book this is; the author has a real ability for creating characters with an empathetic nature, a sense of fun and caring whilst all the time threaded through with realism. This is such a touching read. Perhaps I found it more so as I am myself a grandmother. Relationships with out grandchildren are the best of all; really special, to be treasured, and it all comes across beautifully in this novel. Not a book I’m going to forget for a long time, if ever, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. An absolute pleasure to have read this one, and nothing less than five wonderful stars will do!

My thanks to publisher Viking for my copy via NetGalley; as always, the given opinions are entirely my own and completely honest.

 

Tags: literary fiction

• Format: ebook, hardcover, audio
• Size: 292 pages
• Publisher: Viking – Penguin UK
• Publication Date: 7 November 2019
• Purchase Links: Google Play
•                                 Kobo
•                                 W. H. Smith
•                                 Waterstones
•                                 amazon

 

 

 

 

Author Bio

 

Salley Vickers’ subtle, witty style and clear-eyed observation of human nature has been compared to Penelope Fitzgerald and Barbara Pym. She has worked as a university teacher of literature, specialising in Shakespeare, and in adult education, where she specialised in the literature of the ancient world. She is a trained analytical psychologist and lectures widely on the connections between literature, psychology and religion. She divides her time between London, Venice and the West Country.

 

Social Media

Website: salleyvickers.com

Twitter: @SalleyVickers