Miss Benson's Beetle by Rachel Joyce

Life has forced Margery Benson into a dead-end teaching job which she's never enjoyed. Then one day in an uncharacteristic moment of passion, she storms out of school, burns her bridges and decides to pursue her one dream, to find the undiscovered Golden Beetle of New Caledonia; an insect which has long been rumoured to exist but which no one has caught and categorised. To help on her quest, Margery will need an assistant - one as practical and down to earth as herself; one with stout shoes and practical clothing, able to cope with jungle, heat, and the basic living conditions they'll have have to tolerate on their expedition. Instead, she ends up with Enid Pretty; petite, curvaceous, and dressed head to toe in pink - possibly the most impractical explorer's outfit ever!

Miss Benson's Beetle is a light-hearted, engaging, feminist tale of adventure and adversity, of over-coming the odds with the help of one's friend, and attempting to fulfill one's long-held dreams.
Together they make the most unlikely pair, but Enid refuses to be left behind, so they set out to the other side of the world on a journey of discovery, of both beetles and friendship. Margery and Enid are perhaps the most unlikely two women to ever imagine as friends, but, thrown together by circumstances and Enid's determination to not be left behind, a bond gradually grows between them. Both have long-held dreams, and New Caledonia looks like the place they might come true.

The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce

review by Maryom


On a run-down backstreet of a city lies a small parade of shops - a religious gift shop, an undertakers, a tattoo artist, a Polish bakery ... and a record shop, packed with everything from punk to classics. Arriving one day in his battered van carrying little besides his records, Frank has made the music shop his home, and his life's work, but this is the 80s, and a shop dedicated to vinyl is a rarity and not overly profitable. First cassettes, and now those new-fangled CDs have threatened to take over, while Frank continues to insist that the proper, if not the only, way to hear music is on a record. It's a rather quiet shop but the welcome Frank extends to everyone, and the gift he has for picking the right music to suit his customer's mood, has helped him build a regular clientele. Then one day Ilse Brauchmann finds her way to his shop - and collapses outside it.
Frank is drawn to her, but puzzled because that feeling he has of which music would sooth or cheer anyone else is entirely absent. How can he hope to connect with her?
At the same time, Frank and his neighbouring shop-owners are having to fend off the attentions of a property development company intent on buying out their businesses, demolishing the street and building something new, exciting, but lacking all charm, in its place.

Rachel Joyce's latest novel is a tale of two lonely, introverted people, determined to hide their hurts from the world but, after so long building barriers to hide behind, can they open up enough to let love in? There's a light, heart-warming, rom-com feel to The Music Shop (there are plenty of occasions when you can easily imagine how it would appear on film), with its two engaging 'leads' and support of quirky characters, and, after troubles that take the story in an unexpected direction, that welcome feel good ending. But at the same time, it speaks of the value of community in the face of faceless development businesses, of the possibility of second chances, and music can help when almost everything else fails

Maryom's review - 4 stars

Publisher - Doubleday

Genre - adult fiction

Rachel Joyce - author event

By Maryom

We're only just back from holiday but couldn't miss the chance to see Rachel Joyce at Nottingham Waterstones last night - even booking our holiday to get back in time. This is the THIRD time we've seen her. First at Lowdham Festival, rather by accident when we went to see ML Stedman, and a previous event at Waterstones.
The previous events were both promoting her first book -  The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry which has proved to be immensely popular with readers. Last night she was back to talk about her new book - Perfect. which was launched last week. This story deals with the impact that a small incident in a very small time frame can have on the lives of all concerned.

The event started with Ms Joyce reading the prologue to Perfect - a good way to whet our appetites without giving away spoilers. Then she chatted with her publisher which she concluded with extracts from her very own diary from 1972 - when one of the threads of the story is set. She then answered questions from the audience. As Perfect is only one week old most of the questions focussed on Harold Fry but, rather surprisingly, many of the questions also reflected on Perfect.

Having read and immensely enjoyed Perfect, I was struck by the new ways I found myself interpreting it after hearing the author herself talking about it and placing emphasis on different aspects.

As is traditional at these events, the final part of the evening was the book signing, photographs and one on one chats with the author that make a book even more special. I even got my photo taken with her - but I look far too silly in it to share.

Perfect by Rachel Joyce

review by Maryom

In 1972 to make 'artificial' clock time agree with 'real' time measured by the Earth's movement, two seconds were added to the year. Hardly any time at all. Blink and you'd miss them. And after all, what could possibly happen in those two extra seconds? Well, as it turns out for 11 year old Byron Hemmings and his family, enough to change his whole world. A small accident kicks off events in the way that a small trickle of water seeping through a dam can eventually bring everything crashing down.

The story is told from two angles; that of Byron, back in 1972, struggling to understand what is happening as his once ordered and mapped out life is derailed and sent spinning out of control; and in the present, that of 50-something Jim who's spent his life in and out of psychiatric care, struggling to find order in a chaotic world, but taking the first tentative, stumbling steps towards a relationship. It's only as the story draws to a close that the reader realises the relationship between the two story-lines.

Perfect is an amazing second novel from Rachel Joyce, author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry - and, in my opinion, a far more complex and compelling story. It's rather dark but has the emotional pull that keeps me reading. I so wanted to discover what would happen to the characters, how the two halves would connect and would there be a happy, or at least hopeful, ending.
Joyce has been more ambitious this time with a wider range of characters, drawn with sympathy and understanding. Byron struggling to understand the changes taking place in his world; his mother, Diana, with her carefully built oh-so-perfect, but essentially hollow, life; and Jim with his daily 'rituals' that must be observed to keep the randomness of the universe at bay. There is of course a villain - the devious, manipulating Beverley who turns events to her advantage and infiltrates Byron's perfect world with devastating consequences. Byron may not understand her and her motives but the reader does, all too well!

Perfect is a novel exploring the fragility of our lives, particularly if like Diana's they're a sham - the events set in motion in those fateful two seconds bring the whole façade crashing down. There's more than a touch of chaos theory about things - like the butterfly flapping its wings and creating a hurricane, one simple act sparks a chain reaction; some are engulfed by it; others turn it to their advantage.

Harold Fry brought Rachel Joyce a whole flood of fans, this will bring even more!

Maryom's Review - 5 stars
Publisher: Transworld Books
Genre: Adult, literary


Buy Perfect from Amazon

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

Review by The Mole

Harold receives a letter from Queenie, a work colleague of many years ago, to say that she is dying in a hospice over 500 miles away and to say thank you for his kindness twenty years ago. Harold feels unable to express adequately in a letter the reply he wants to give but sets out to post a letter in reply. He keeps giving himself excuses not to post it yet but to go to the next post box. After a conversation with an assistant in a garage he decides to carry on his walk and go to Berwick-on-Tweed to speak to Queenie directly. After phoning the hospice and his wife he continues walking with only what he is wearing and carrying.

This book is one of those books that no two people read the same story in. I know that the version Maryom told me was not what I read and having heard Rachel Joyce read from it twice, once at Lowdham and once in Waterstones, it is not the book she read to me. At Waterstones people talked about their experience with the story and yet again it was not the story I read.

From the off I didn't like Harold Fry. He was a mouse of a man with no opinion of his own. I tend to refer to such people as 'acquiescent man' - he is what others expect him to be. Maureen was very different, a rather unpleasant character from the off with a foreboding of evil about her. What we learned of Queenie at the outset was not very endearing either. Having said all that I found I just had to keep reading - I was enjoying it despite the characters. Perhaps it was the hope that he would leave the old Harold Fry somewhere by the roadside and return home reformed and be able to make something of his marriage to Maureen.

As he meets new characters along the way I started to find characters I actually liked, the oncologist and Martina, characters who seemed properly connected with the world and who showed true compassion. And let's not forget Dog please!

The end started to feel like a French farce at times as secrets between Harold, Maureen and Queenie tumbled across the page - even the garage girl shared secrets. As for the ending? It was not the ending I hoped for but perhaps it's the most we could expect for as readers.

I did enjoy this book but if you are not looking for a book that will try to tug at your emotions - even if it's not always successful - and a book that will get you thinking about people then this isn't the book for you.

Publisher - Black Swan
Genre - Adult Fiction

Buy The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry from Amazon

Rachel Joyce - author event

We started this year's round of literary events at an evening with Rachel Joyce held in our (almost) local Waterstones as part of the promotional tour for the launch of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry in paperback. This is the second time we've seen her as she appeared along with ML Stedman at last year's Lowdham Festival

A lot has happened since then for Harold Fry - being one of Transworld's biggest sellers of 2012, an audio-book version produced read by Jim Broadbent, selected for the Man Booker longlist, winner of the Specsavers National Book Awards 'New Writer of the Year' 2012 and now chosen for Richard and Judy Spring 2013 Bookclub .... all of which has all led to an unexpectedly busy promotional year for the author.
 There's also the exciting prospect of a film sometime in the future - rights have been sold to a British company and, if produced, will be shot in Britain and feature British actors of appropriate age.

As a 'solo' performance this event was quite different to the last, with different topics covered. Things started with a chat-style interview, followed by a reading from the beginning of Harold Fry's journey. There was of course time for questions from the audience and their response showed that Harold Fry is a book - and character - loved equally by men and women. A brief mention was made of Joyce's upcoming next novel, Perfect, to be published  later this year and the evening concluded with a book-signing.

Lowdham Book Festival

A few months ago I had the delight of reading ML Stedman's début novel The Light Between Oceans - a wonderfully atmospheric and engrossing tug-of-love story - so when I heard the author would be appearing at the relatively local Lowdham Book Festival I told The Mole we had to go! I also suggested he read the novel first - which he did.

The event was billed as Coffee and Cake with debut novelists Rachel Joyce and ML Stedman to be chaired by Alison Barrow from Transworld Publishers and held in the slightly unusual but very beautiful St Mary's Church. As it turned out, due to hold-ups with the train bringing ML Stedman and Alison Barrow, the audience started on the coffee and cake before they arrived - an excellent way to keep everyone happy and occupied while waiting for the vagaries of transport.

The real event started with Rachel Joyce and ML Stedman reading short teaser sections from their respective novels and then chatting to Alison Barrow before throwing the discussion open to the audience. Topics covered included the authors approach to writing, how and where to get their thoughts into words, striking a balance between the creative world and the real one, the route to publication, future novel writing plans. A comment of ML Stedman's that particularly struck me was how she sees her novel as a chrysalis (while working on it) now turned into a butterfly heading out among readers and coming back with their thoughts of what the book meant to them or how they saw the characters.
I normally go to events involving an author whose work I've read and loved, I suppose in the hope of gleaning extra insight into their novels or them as a person. This time there was an author who had deeply impressed me - and one of whom I knew nothing. The extract from and talk of Rachel Joyce's novel The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry have whetted by appetite enough that I now intend to track it down and read it.

Both books are published by Transworld.

The event still has a few days to run and the timetable shows that the events are varied and include a cooking demonstration by the kind person that provided the cakes for this event.

Read The Mole's review and/or mine