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The Finest Type of English Womanhood
by
Rachel Heath
It is 1946, and seventeen-year-old Laura Telling is stagnating in her dilapidated Sussex family home, while her eccentric parents slip further into isolation. A chance encounter with Paul Lovell offers her the chance to alter the course of her destiny - and to embark on a new life in South Africa.
Many miles north, sixteen-year-old Gay Gibson is desperate to escape Birkenhe...more
Many miles north, sixteen-year-old Gay Gibson is desperate to escape Birkenhe...more
Paperback, 384 pages
Published
February 4th 2010
by Windmill Books
(first published January 1st 2009)
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This is the sort of book that you can end up with when your bookstore is running a buy-two-get-one-free deal. You’ve picked up the two that you want to read and are looking for the third free one. The choices are limited, but you’re less picky because you’re getting it for “free.” So you pick a book with a catchy title. Catchy to me at least. I thought I should find out what the finest type of English womanhood looks like, since I live in England now.
The book has a decent plot – supposedly inspi...more
The book has a decent plot – supposedly inspi...more
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Jan 08, 2013
Shonaigh Mudie
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
recently-read
Sitting on the just returned trolley, this book grabbed my attention as I walked further into the library. I was encouraged to read due to the blurb. The book begins in bleak postwar England, a young girl Laura is disillusioned with her life. She meets a wealthy gentleman at a party and the pair fall in love. They then return to his homeland- South Africa where she meets and forges a connection with another woman called Gay (also a Brit). Gay is a vibrant, larger than life character who is an as...more
Recommended by one of the ladies at Dummer Book Club and considerably easier to read than Dickens!
Although the book is actually based on the true events of the murder of a young actress called Gay Gibson, for me the main story was of a very english girl from the country "saved" from her crumbling family estate and boringly damp parents by a idealistically confused chap who takes her "home" to South Africa where he grew up (although English born).
Interesting to read about post war SA politics fro...more
Although the book is actually based on the true events of the murder of a young actress called Gay Gibson, for me the main story was of a very english girl from the country "saved" from her crumbling family estate and boringly damp parents by a idealistically confused chap who takes her "home" to South Africa where he grew up (although English born).
Interesting to read about post war SA politics fro...more
In the late 1940s the paths of two young Englishwomen cross when they move to start new lives in South Africa. Laura has quickly met and married Paul so must move in with his parents and put up with her husband's many absences and political ideas. Gay wants a career on stage and screen and doesn't care how she gets it.
The jumping off point for this is a true story of a notorious legal case - I didn't know about this until I'd finished the book, so it's safe to say you don't need to have heard ab...more
The jumping off point for this is a true story of a notorious legal case - I didn't know about this until I'd finished the book, so it's safe to say you don't need to have heard ab...more
A debut novel by author Rachel Heath which, as I found out after having read the book, actually combines fact with fiction, the story of the totally fictional Laura with the 'largely truthful' story of Eileen/Gay.
Written in two very different styles, Gay's story is told as a series of diary entries which I felt impeded the momentum of the novel, the fact that Laura's account dominated much of the book didn't help matters as it just further added to the overall disjointed feel of the whole thing....more
Written in two very different styles, Gay's story is told as a series of diary entries which I felt impeded the momentum of the novel, the fact that Laura's account dominated much of the book didn't help matters as it just further added to the overall disjointed feel of the whole thing....more
it was well written i guess as it did pull me in and I carried on reading as wanted to find out what happened. However, didnt particularly like the book; not one character was likeable and all were very flawed. BAck cover said "excellent on .... the lure of South Africa" but i dont think it did really explain it.
Hard to like the characters or understand them in any way. But hard to put the book down regardless. Maybe a 2.5??
Takovou blbost jsem už dlouho nečetla :o(
NO
There is something so satisfying in these types of books -I've loved them since i was a pre-teen... Victoria Holt used to do it too -the heroine is odd and misunderstood -victimized by everyone and in the end, well - I won't spoil it. ... strangely satisfying.
A good idea for a novel, being based on a true story but I found it sooo slow going at the beginning. It perked up but not enough for me!
Nov 23, 2012
Nicola
marked it as to-read
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
costa-awards,
on-amazon
Aug 24, 2012
Jenice
marked it as to-read
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