Book-Mad-Mum

  Algernon is a 97 year old widower living in Essex. His life is routine based, punctuated by the carriage clock which he got as a retirement present from his office job. However, his 15 year old granddaughter Anna lives in an offbeat world where colour and body art are her main survival aids. Anna and Algernon have never met, but soon their very different lives will collide. When Anna’s Mum Helene splits up with her partner Harry, they find themselves homeless and having nowhere to live, they relocate to Essex to stay in Algernon’s small home while they get their lives back on track. Anna “the child” is told to sleep in “the shed” but this turns out to be a sanctuary and not the dog kennel that she originally thought it would be. This heart-warming story is told through three generations of one family, granddad Algernon, daughter Helene and granddaughter Anna and the journey they all go on to get to know each other and to try and face the demons that their past threw at them. ...

  MY FAVOURITE READ OF 2022 SO FAR... After 17 years of an unhappy marriage, Anna finally leaves husband Conor and moves in with James, but both have “baggage” - Anna has two children, Jack and Grace and James has a teenage daughter called Bella. The “blended” family isn’t exactly the Brady Bunch that Anna and James had hoped for - the kids hate living in their new set up but just how do they all live together in harmony?   I absolutely loved this book but I think it resonated with me, because I am a Step Mum, and when I first met my partner’s daughter she was a teenager and my own son was Jack’s age so there were a few similarities, but not that many and my son certainly didn’t share our bed!!   Anna’s ex husband Conor was an absolute idiot, a man-child and I hated him from day one as he used his children to get back at Anna, and his behaviour at Jack’s birthday part was just unforgivable. Anna also annoyed me at times as she was constantly making excuses fo...

  It’s the 1990’s, Pulp, the Verve and The Stereophonics are in the charts, the National lottery was launched and the internet for most people, was just a twinkle in the eye. The order of the Sisters of Saint Philomena are down to just three last nuns and the convent needs a lot of repairs. With no money and no new novices coming in they face a dire future. Sister Cecilia, a 90 year member of the convent starts praying for a lottery win and after that a series of small miracles start to unfold. I loved this book, but think it was helped by the fact that my grandma worked in a convent in Ireland, and so I was always around nuns from a young age, and was fascinated by their lives, so for me this felt like a trip down memory lane. There were some occasions in the book when I was really surprised by the behaviour and attitude of Sister Margaret, but then you discover why and it all fits into place, and the intertwined story of Matthew and George was a delight to read.