It’s such a pleasure today to share my review of the latest book from Christine Webber, Watching From The Wings. Independently published on April 26th, it’s now available for kindle via Amazon: it’s available in paperback too, and can be ordered via any high street bookshop within a couple of days (and in stock at lots of bookshops in Norfolk and Suffolk), but there’s unfortunately a temporary glitch in it showing up on Amazon. My thanks to the author for providing a pre-release e-copy for my review.
There are a small number of authors who reliably produce books that delight me, the kinds of books I most love to read – and Christine has certainly earned her place on that list. I still vividly remember my enjoyment of It’s Who We Are – attracted by the promise of “five friends in their fifties”, I loved its themes of friendship, kindness and identity, and found it both joyful and uplifting as its strong female characters discovered those things that gave their lives real meaning (you can read my full review again here – and it thoroughly deserved its place on my 2018 Books of the Year list). And I think I might have loved So Many Ways of Loving even more – I’ve very rarely come across a book with such emotional authenticity as the three women at the story’s heart, all approaching their sixties, became my friends as I shared their lives and experiences, laughed with them and cried with them, and was quite bereft when the time came to leave them behind (you’ll find my full review of that one here – and it was, of course, one of my 2021 Books of the Year).
I’ve mentioned before that Christine’s video podcasts on positive ageing played an important part in keeping me going through the dark days of lockdown – I still very much enjoy them, and her regular articles on later life issues. Over the years, she’s become a long-distance and very supportive friend, but – of course – I’d never allow that to influence my reviews. And my expectations of her latest book were particularly high, given my love for her others – I really hoped it would be the perfect read to immerse myself in over the Bank Holiday weekend…
What happens when the fairytale you thought you wanted at twenty-two, feels like a prison forty years later?
Watching From the Wings is a heartwarming tale of devotion, friendship, joy and passion, but also one involving disappointment, duplicity and betrayal. We all have our own journey of love. Katharine’s is more complex than most. And she comes to realise that she has always chosen the wrong door whenever she had the chance to exit by a more promising one. At the age of 62, can she make a fresh start, or is it too late?
It’s 1982, and at 22, fresh out of drama school, Katharine finds herself part of a repertory company in Broadburgh-on-Sea – and the early part of this book is an entirely absorbing first person account of life behind the scenes. Her own appearances often fraught with problems, only increasing her feelings of inadequacy and clumsiness, the real joy in her life comes from her intense relationship with Nicholas, the company’s “star”. Her view of him is perhaps somewhat blinkered: his treatment of her is, at times, appalling, while he shares her digs, expects her to be at his beck and call, spending many hours honing his stage performances while she shores up his inflated and considerable ego.
By 2022, her own career set aside while she supported his, she sees things more clearly – Nicholas might have become a knight of the theatre, but as she considers his many grave misdemeanours over the years she decides that the time might have come to step out of his shadow and live her own life. With a fair bit of bravery, and considerable aplomb – I found myself really urging her on – she realises that it’s not too late to follow her own hopes and dreams, and to find the happiness and contentment that’s eluded her throughout their forty years together.
The characters in this book are quite wonderfully drawn – and not just Katharine, whose younger self entirely won my heart at around the time when she dragged a rose bush onto the stage attached to her skirt, all played out in front of her much-loved father and a visiting London agent. At her mother’s last visit, she pulled a cupboard on top of herself – a totally self-centred former darling of the British film industry, their relationship never an easy one, Moira certainly has a great deal to do with Katharine’s oft-voiced feelings of never being quite good enough. But Katharine also has a number of people very much in her corner – particularly Simon, the company’s director who harbours feelings for her that he knows won’t be requited, and long-term friend Cleo (her own story well-told too – I really liked her) who perhaps has a rather clearer view of the way Nicholas is controlling her life. The friendships and family relationships are fascinating in every way, and quite perfectly handled – but so is the insider view of life in the theatre world with its many excesses.
But perhaps what I loved most about this book was Katharine’s personal journey – her later-life decision to acknowledge her own needs and make a life of her own most certainly doesn’t mean that all her problems are over, but the way she responds to every new challenge and secret that emerges proves tremendously uplifting, with an ending that’s satisfying in every possible way. At 62, she finally starts to become the woman she was always meant to be – and sharing her very real life experience was everything I’d hoped for. At an emotional level, the author judges everything quite perfectly – and, I have to say, her storytelling is pretty well perfect too, with an ease to the reading that totally draws you into the lives of her characters.
I read this lovely book in a single sitting, identifying with Katharine across the years and through her life’s many ups and downs, entirely immersed in the world the author so brilliantly created – and really felt the joy of the happy ending its heroine so richly deserved. Yes, this will be one of my books of the year – and I really couldn’t recommend it more highly.
About the author
Christine Webber tried various careers in her younger days – she was a classical singer, a Principal Boy in pantomimes, an undistinguished actress as well as a piano and singing teacher. Fortunately, for her, when she was thirty, she managed to get a job in television as a continuity announcer, and shortly thereafter she became a news presenter at Anglia TV. Finally, she had found an occupation she liked that other people thought she was good at. This was a massive relief.
In her early forties, she married the love of her life, David Delvin. Soon afterwards, she decided it was time to leave news presenting to train as a psychotherapist and she also became a problem page columnist for various publications including TV Times, Best, BBC Parenting, The Scotsman and Woman. In addition, she regularly broadcast relationship advice on Trisha, The Good Sex Guide …Late and from the BBC’s Breakfast sofa.
In her fifties, she and her husband set up a practice in Harley Street, and they worked together there and collaborated on several books. They also wrote the sex/relationships content on www.netdoctor.co.uk and penned a joint column for the health section of The Spectator.
Over the decades, Christine was commissioned to write ten self-help books including Get the Happiness Habit, How to Mend a Broken Heart and Too Young to Get Old.
Now, in her seventies, her focus is on the issues of mid and later life. She makes video podcasts on positive ageing and writes a column for various regional papers on that theme. She is also a life coach specialising in health and ageing. But she has no plans for any more non-fiction books. Instead, for the past five years she has concentrated on writing novels for and about older people. Previous titles in this genre have been Who’d Have Thought It? and It’s Who We Are.
So Many Ways of Loving, which made the shortlist of 2022’s Selfie’s awards, is about the major life changes we have to expect as we age, the possibilities of new beginnings as well as our crucial need for good friends and family.
Christine’s latest book, out in April 2023, is Watching From The Wings, a heart-warming tale of a woman finding her real self in her sixties.
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