#Review: The Golden Oldies’ Book Club by Judy Leigh @JudyLeighWriter @BoldwoodBooks @rararesources #blogtour #publicationday #BoldwoodBloggers #secondchances #ItsNeverTooLate

I’m delighted today to be helping launch the blog tour for Judy Leigh’s latest book, The Golden Oldies’ Book Club, and sharing my publication day review: published by Boldwood Books today (6th December), it’s now available for kindle (free via Kindle Unlimited), in paperback, and as an audiobook. As always, my thanks to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for the invitation and support, and to the publishers for my advance reading e-copy (provided via netgalley).

Ok, I think everyone probably knows by now just how much I love Judy’s books – great stories, those wonderful older characters, the wonderful humour and the moments of poignancy. I really thought her books couldn’t get any better than A Year of Mr Maybes, and the bar was already set pretty high (you’ll find my March review here) – but then came The Highland Hens (review here), which I thought was absolute perfection. She really can’t get better than that, can she? I don’t know, but I was certainly looking forward to finding out. And I must add that I was thrilled to find how much I also loved her writing when she turned her hand to something very different, writing as her alter ego Elena Collins – I really loved The Witch’s Tree (review here), and I’m very much looking forward to the next, The Lady of the Loch, out on February 23rd, available now for kindle pre-order, and already firmly on my reading list.

But enough – let’s take a closer look at Judy’s latest…

Deep in the Somerset countryside, the Combe Pomeroy village library hosts a monthly book club.

 

Ruth the librarian fears she’s too old to find love, but a discussion about Lady Chatterley’s Lover makes her think again.

 

Aurora doesn’t feel seventy-two and longs to relive the excitement of her youth, while Verity is getting increasingly tired of her husband Mark’s grumpiness and wonders if their son’s imminent flight from the nest might be just the moment for her to fly too. And Danielle is fed up with her cheating husband. Surely life has more in store for her than to settle for second best?

 

The glue that holds Combe Pomeroy together is Jeannie. Doyenne of the local cider farm and heartbeat of her family and community, no one has noticed that Jeannie needs some looking after too. Has the moment for her to retire finally arrived, and if so, what does her future hold?

 

From a book club French exchange trip, to many celebrations at the farm, this is the year that everything changes, that lifelong friendships are tested, and for some of the women, they finally get the love they deserve.

There’s so much I love about Judy Leigh’s writing that I hardly know where to start – but let me make it her wonderful characters, the five women at this book’s heart.

Jeannie is now seventy-two, the powerhouse behind Sharrocks’ cider farm, her family business – as well as organising operations that vary with the seasons (and particularly successfully), she cares for her elderly mother Violet (now there’s a woman who would try the patience of a saint…) and her two teenage grandchildren, and her thoughts are beginning to turn reluctantly towards the possibility of retirement. Aurora runs the gift shop at the farm – an ageing rock chick of a similar age (but don’t tell her I called her that), brash and over-the-top in every way, but harbouring her own regrets about lost opportunities and the absence of love in her life. Ruth is Combe Pomeroy’s village librarian, straight-laced and very much the archetypal spinster (did I just say that – sorry!), but also living with feelings of not having lived the fullest of lives. The other two are a little younger. Danielle is the local estate agent, facing up to her husband’s infidelities even if it leaves her alone and jobless – and Verity might look as if she has a charmed and privileged life, but her husband is a misogynist and bully, and she’s reaching the point where she’s had more than enough of it.

All the women slowly gained a place in my heart as I got to know them better through their various interactions – at the cider farm of course, at the gift shop cafe and the various events they organise, but also at the monthly book club Ruth runs at the library. The book discussions – and they’re quite wonderful – overlap with and reflect the situations going on in the women’s lives (very cleverly done), and they’re there for each other through good times and bad. There’s a hilarious trip to France – Ruth revives the twinning arrangement with a cider-producing region that’s lapsed a little, knowing they could all do with a bit of a break from the everyday – when they all have the opportunity to let their hair down and get to know each other rather better, so there are some particularly touching moments too.

And it’s also a lovely multi-generational story. There’s young love despite parental opposition, and the grandchildren step up to show that the cider farm might just be in safe hands if Jeannie decides to step back – and there’s romance in the lives of all the ladies too, some of it unexpected (sometimes unwelcome, and sometimes not what it appears), as they each make their decisions about what will bring them happiness. Emotionally, it’s all just perfect – a beautifully told story, the supporting cast as well drawn as the main characters – with that balance between raucous fun and moments that bring a tear to your eye that the author always does so well. I will admit that I did find Jeannie’s mother Violet just a little wearing – her constant joke-telling became just a bit too much – but I was particularly touched by the real affection between her and her daughter.

Wonderful storytelling, characters I really loved, beautifully drawn settings, tears and laughter – this book is yet another triumph from an author who never disappoints me, and very much recommended.

About the author

Judy Leigh is the bestselling author of Five French Hens, A Grand Old Time and The Age of Misadventure, and the doyenne of the ‘it’s never too late’ genre of women’s fiction. She has lived all over the UK from Liverpool to Cornwall, but currently resides in Somerset.

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