It’s a real pleasure today to be joining the blog tour for A Vintage Vacation by Maddie Please, and sharing my review: published by Boldwood Books on 30th May, it’s now available as an e-book (free via Kindle Unlimited), in paperback, and as an audiobook. 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).
As someone who always searches out books featuring older characters, I’m rather ashamed to admit that it’s two years since I last read a book from Maddie. That was The Old Ducks’ Club – and, as you’ll see from my review (you’ll find it here), I did reluctantly admit that the ladies’ madcap adventures weren’t entirely my cup of tea. I think it might well just have been bad timing – I’m never usually a miserable bugger, honestly! – and, through the intervening years, I’ve often noticed a number of really enthusiastic reviews of her books and wondered if I should try another. When Rachel’s note about this one appeared in my inbox, the premise of it immediately appealed – and I will admit that I was more than a little swayed by the quote from Judy Leigh on the cover. So just a little spoiler in advance of sharing my review – this book was everything I hoped it would be, and I absolutely loved it!
Let’s take a closer look…
Clover Harrington might be sixty-one, but she’s still bossing it in the corporate world and can still run rings around her younger colleagues. And then she is made redundant….
Devastated and now suddenly the wrong side of sixty Clover doesn’t know what to do with her life or her corporate wardrobe! What does she wear if not red lippy and a power suit?! Rather than offer her any support, her partner, Jack announces he’s off on a golfing weekend, leaving Clover completely adrift.
Desperate to get away from it all, Clover decides to visit her cousin Zoe at her small taverna in the gorgeous Italian Lakes. There she can rest and recuperate and plan the next stage of her life.
Until Clover’s eighty-year-old mother, Eleanor decides to turn up for the holiday too! Instead of gentle ambles around the lake, Eleanor seems more interested in late night poker and swigging Prosecco and Clover can’t quite believe her mum is having more fun than she is. But as the saying goes – if you can’t beat em, join em!
But is Clover brave enough to live La Dolce Vita?
She might now be in her sixties, but Clover is more than ready for the next step on the corporate ladder – and is devastated when, instead of the expected seat on the board, she’s made redundant, shepherded out of the building with her belongings in a small box, and facing a future she neither expected or wanted. Work was her life, her power suits and red lipstick her armour against the world, and she thought she was invincible – her private life is far less under control, with self-centred partner Jack (what a user!), an overly critical mother, and her adult son now making his own life in Canada. All she can think of is getting away – and although it’s some time since she’s made time to see her cousin Zoe, her taverna in the Italian Lakes feels like the perfect refuge for a while, with time to lick her wounds and work out what to do next with her life.
On arrival, she’s totally out of her depth. She knows that helping out (washing up, chopping vegetables, preparing tables…) might be the best way to repay Zoe for her hospitality, but she’s never been particularly practical, and her corporate wardrobe certainly isn’t the right gear to be wearing in a kitchen. But she’s gradually won over by the warmth of her welcome, lets her hair down (that tight french pleat had to go…), buys more suitable clothing (and shoes… and I just loved her joy at buying her first leather jacket!) and begins to relax and enjoy a life that’s so very different from what she’s used to. There are more opportunities to help out her hosts – that might just not go quite as smoothly as she hopes – but there just might be a new relationship in the offing too, a really lovely man, warm and gentle and just a little damaged, and so much more supportive than the awful Jack.
And then, to her horror, her mother Eleanor arrives – but she’s not the problem that Clover rather expects her to be. That retirement community was sucking the joy out of her life, and she’s determined to live life to the full, behaving badly and enjoying every moment – she’s an absolute joy, the best proof ever that it’s never too late, and I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed being part of her adventures too. Until, of course, they both need to make some decisions about their future – when the world of work unexpectedly beckons Clover back once more, can they both face resuming their former lives?
There was so much I loved about this book, but particularly the ease with which I could identify with Clover – and this is why I so enjoy books with older protagonists – when she’s set adrift and struggling to find her path. The story’s told in the first person, with a particularly distinctive voice, and we share all her doubts and fears – and many of them were so recognisable and very real. I grew to entirely love her, to punch the air at her small triumphs, to really feel for her when things went less well – and found her whole journey into an uncertain future tremendously uplifting and life-affirming.
There are moments of real poignancy to the story, but there’s also plenty of humour – frequently laugh-out-loud, but sometimes quite gentle, and always quite perfectly judged. The location is so perfectly drawn – I’d be very happy to spend my days at that lovely taverna – and so are the individuals who make up the surrounding community that draws them in. It’s charming, it’s moving, it’s touching, it made me quite emotional at times… I just loved it. This is a book I’d recommend without reservation, where the author just gets everything absolutely right – and I’m really looking forward to reading more from Maddie Please, very much my kind of author.
About the author
Maddie Please is the #1 bestselling author of novels including The Old Ducks’ Club and Sisters Behaving Badly. Having had a career as a dentist and now lives in rural Devon where she enjoys box sets, red wine and Christmas. She will be taking a new direction in her writing for Boldwood with joyous tales of older women.
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