Published By: Michael Joseph
Pages: 384
Released On: 29/02/2024
Born during the Second World War, Lesley’s innocence came to an abrupt end when a neighbour found her, aged 3, coatless in the snow. The mother she’d been unable to wake had been dead for days. Sent to an orphanage, Lesley soon learned adults couldn’t always be trusted.
As a teenager in the swinging sixties, she took herself to London. Here, the second great tragedy of her life occurred. Falling pregnant, she was sent to a mother and baby home, and watched helplessly as her newborn was taken from her.
But like so many of her generation, Lesley had to carry on. She was, after all, a true survivor. Marriage and children followed – and all the while she nurtured a dream: to be a writer. Yet it wasn’t until at the age of 48 that her stories – of women struggling in a difficult world – found a publisher, and the bestseller lists beckoned.
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Michael Joseph for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
I’m sure that all bibliophiles know of Lesley Pearse, but how many of us actually know who she is as a person rather than an author? I was super excited to receive this book.
Lesley mentions in this that her Father was called Sergeant Arthur Geoffrey Sargent, and that really made me smile as my late Nan’s maiden name was Sargent, and so her Father at one time or another would have been Sergeant Sargent too.
She hasn’t left anything out in this book, especially from her childhood. It’s brutal and upsetting and unbelievable how she was treated and I just wanted to find this little Lesley and comfort her.
I haven’t read a Lesley Pearse book in a very long time, but there was something about her writing in this that reminded me of Julie Owen Moylan’s writing; this way of writing about human behaviour, especially female human behaviour.
My main criticism is there seemed to be an imbalance of stories. I don’t want to call it a criticism really as it’s her life story, she knows what she wants to write about, but as a personal comment, I felt it was very heavy on the childhood and upbringing and very light as an adult and a writer, and personally, I would have loved more about her later life and career.
I did find it became a bit fanciful at times. I know she can’t help what happened in her life, and the fact that it sounded so unbelievable should have made it even stronger considering it’s real. But at times I felt it was just listing one morose thing after another. It grabbed me instantly and I was enjoying it, and then the last 10% maybe I enjoyed, but it lost its way a bit for me in the middle sort of 30% or so. I was finding it a bit tiring to read and I wasn’t enjoying it so much.
If it were a fiction book, I’d say the author has put too many things in it and it was becoming too heavy.
Having said all of that, I definitely think it will be an interesting read for Lesley Pearse fans.
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