Honey Brown is Married by Sara Judge
| Honey Brown is Married by Sara Judge | |
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| Category: Women's Fiction | |
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Reviewer: Sue Magee
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| Summary: An easy read which takes a sharp turn into an appalling moral dilemma about three-quarters of the way through the book. | |
| Buy? Maybe | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 224 | Date: December 2012 |
| Publisher: Robert Hale | |
| ISBN: 978-0719807213 | |
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Honey Brown had been a foundling, but fortune - and a benefactress - had smiled on her and she became a dancer at the Windmill Theatre. Then she met August Blake, farmer and the two married and Honey left the theatre to live on the Sussex farm. After a week's honeymoon she was largely left to her own devices. How would she cope with married life, the local community and being a farmer's wife? Well, it was a steep learning curve, but there's more to Honey than meets the eye. There's more to August, too.
It's an engaging story about a young woman, wise in the ways of theatreland but naive in the lore of the countryside. The usual cliches of the mother of the groom who harbours resentment against the incoming bride and the flighty young woman who doesn't know which side her bread's buttered on are thankfully avoided. You'll like Honey - well, actually, it's Annie, but that's not really a dancer's name, is it? She's an engaging mixture of street-wise urchin and naive young woman, but one who's determined to do her best by her husband. She tells us her story in her own words and even she can't understand why she can't stand Nick the cowman when everyone else seems to think he's wonderful. She see him as cruel and violent whilst everyone else thinks that he's simply a man dealing with the realities of country life.
Apart from being annoyed by a book in which a hedgehog is given milk (it probably killed him) and is expected to be about during daylight hours I thought the first three-quarters of the book was a light and enjoyable read, with a theme that's perhaps best described as How Do You Keep Them Down On The Farm After They've Seen Paree? - only this time it's the other way round. The time - circa nineteen fifty - is captured perfectly, including the attitude to smoking which now seems almost alien. All the nuances, the inhibitions and the prohibitions are there. It's a delightful picture too of country life, particularly from a townie's point of view.
Then we get towards the end of the book and Honey is presented with an appalling moral dilemma. It was as though we were in a completely different story and I certainly didn't see the problem coming. I'd love to have had far more about this aspect of Honey's story and rather less of the light read in the earlier pages.
I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.
If this book appeals then you might enjoy The Rose Petal Beach by Dorothy Koomson.
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