#Feature: Autumn Chickens #blogblitz @autumnchickens @ClaiBal @1chriswebber #olderreaders

I’m delighted today to be part of the month long blog blitz for Autumn Chickens, and my thanks to website creator and editor Claire Baldry for the invitation. You haven’t heard about it before? If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you might just remember my excitement – and the posts I shared back in 2018 – about the group and website then called Books for Older Readers, set up to promote books (mainly fiction) with older protagonists or themes with particular appeal to readers in mid-life and beyond. The website was relaunched in October 2019, as a ‘magazine style’ progression, and you’ll find it here – there’s an active and friendly Facebook group too. After a short lull, the on-line activity is now gathering pace again – you’ll find a number of excellent posts from other members, with more to follow throughout the blog blitz and beyond.

But I do know what you’re thinking – why “Autumn Chickens”? Well, that was inspired by author Anne Stormont who wrote a blog post about the struggle to persuade mainstream publishers to take books with older protaganists seriously, and described herself as “more of an autumn chicken than a spring one” – and that was something that certainly resonated with the site’s membership (myself included!).

As an enthusiastic reader of contemporary fiction, with a distinct preference for romance, I can remember a time when I’d become rather resigned to the fact that it was always going to struggle to find books featuring individuals I could identify with. Yes, I know we were all young once, but I’d started to find the chick lit books I used to love too insubstantial, their characters now often the age of any children or (heaven help us) grandchildren that I might have had, their concerns increasingly irrelevant to my life. For a long time, the only characters I found I could really identify with tended to remain in the background as sketchily drawn family members – and if they were ever allowed to take centre stage, they were often quirky old codgers who I couldn’t identify with either (and definitely didn’t want to!). All I wanted was to read about people who’d lived a little, about their family relationships, their interests, their second chances and later life romances – I really wanted to read about people like me.

In the absence of stickers on covers saying “enjoyed by older readers”, those books used to be extraordinarily difficult to find – often self-published, or championed by small independents who tended to find me rather than the other way round. When the website was originally established, it provided a virtual bookshelf where those books could, at long last, be discovered and celebrated. I do think it’s only fair to say that the publishing landscape has changed a lot in recent years – there are increasing numbers of “later life” novels being published by mainstream publishers, by authors whose books can be found in the Top 100 bestsellers, and it’s a trend I really hope will continue. But that bookshelf on the Autumn Chickens website remains both valuable and relevant, with more books added regularly – and today I thought I’d take a closer look at a couple you’ll find featured on the Recently Added page…

The first author I’d like to mention is Christine Webber, who reliably produces books that delight me, the kinds of books I most love to read – you’ll find a link to episode 35 of her Too Young to Get Old podcast featured here as part of the blog blitz, and two of her books are featured on the Recently Added page. So Many Ways of Loving was a book I really loved – 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). And then there was Watching From The Wings, which I thought was even better…

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?

Ok with you if I share my review again? My pleasure…!

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.

And just one more? As well as being the website’s founder and editor, Claire Baldry has written a couple of lovely novels – and you’ll find My Daughter’s Wedding on that page too…

When ‘bride to be’ and single parent, Charlotte, discovers that her 61-year-old widowed mother is in a new relationship, she struggles to come to terms with it. “Why do you need to have a man, at your age?” Charlotte asks, “Can’t you just be a grandma?”

 

The growing tension between mother and daughter combined with preparations for the wedding impact on both family and friends. In this compelling and unashamedly romantic tale of finding love in later life, the experience of a young care-leaver who is tasked with making the wedding bouquet, is skilfully intertwined with the family’s –  sometimes turbulent – preparations for a modern wedding.

And it’s a pleasure to share my review again…

Just sometimes, you can tell from the opening pages when you’re reading a book that you’re going to enjoy – an exchange between mother Angie and her slightly abrasive and demanding adult daughter Charlotte, her assertion that “I am not old yet, I have a right to my own life” – and I happily allowed myself to relax into the story. Angie was so very lovely, extremely likeable and easy to identify with: I loved her friendship with Alison – the author writes excellent, really natural, dialogue – and I then watched with delight as she met Martin at her Uncle Jack’s funeral and the relationship slowly developed. I very much liked the insights into the lives and thoughts of both characters, and their very different relationships with their families – Martin’s easy one with daughter Jessica, as she encourages his new relationship, Angie’s with daughter Charlotte rather more fraught.

 

When I reviewed Different Genes, I said it was “a gentle, tender and very real later-life love story, with two extremely likeable and beautifully drawn main characters”. It might be a tad lazy of me, but I can say exactly the same about this one. There’s an absolute authenticity about the characters, their hopes and fears – their questions about earlier relationships, their different lifestyles, their financial divide, their growing ease with each other, their feelings as they develop, their concerns about intimacy. I particularly liked the telephone calls as they got to know each other – feeling their way, slowly relaxing into their relationship, privately expressing their doubts and fears.

 

But a relationship is invariably about more than just two people, and I liked the way the family relationships were portrayed. Angie’s daughter, at first, is quite insufferable – her mother’s relationship affects her life and childcare plans, and she demonstrates totally unreasonable selfishness when her mother wants to be more than “just a grandma”, expecting her to “show a bit of dignity”. Six year old grandson Joe is a lovely little character – heaven knows how, with his unbearable mother! – and I particularly liked the way he bonded with Martin over successive visits (even if the initial attraction was his little red Fiat!). The friendship with Alison was well handled too, with an unexpectedly poignant story unfolding – and I loved her exchanges with Angie at every point in her difficult journey.

 

And then, in the second part of the book, the focus changes – and it’s not just a shift in perspective, it’s an entirely separate and rather darker story of the life of Carly, at first a child in care, then as a fugitive from domestic violence and her attempts to rebuild her life thereafter. I’ll admit that I did feel rather wrenched from the story I’d been enjoying at first, but I did quickly become immersed in Carly’s life – and began to cheer every small victory as I grew to know her, and admire her resilience and resourcefulness. The third part of the book returns to the original story, and the approaching daughter’s wedding of the title – and the two stories are very cleverly drawn together, with a particular originality in the part played by both weddings and funerals.

 

I think the book’s structure works really well – I might have preferred a slightly softer transition, but the whole was a read I really enjoyed. And I must mention another element of the story I loved, its vivid sense of place. Bexhill, Hastings and their surroundings are unknown territory for me, but I felt like I’d had a rather lovely holiday – the descriptions are just wonderful, the restaurants and the markets, the geography and the attractions, the detail drawn with care but never intruding, just enhancing the backdrop for the story. And there were other lovely bits of detail too – the flowers, the main characters’ homes – and some really well drawn minor characters, particularly Angie’s rather intrusive neighbour as a source of both humour and concern.

 

I really like the author’s writing – her style is straightforward and easy to read, her dialogue a particular strength, the developing romance and other emotional content beautifully handled, the pacing excellent, and there are some lovely touches of lightness and humour. And I particularly like the authenticity with which she captures and portrays the thoughts, feelings and experiences of her older characters – very real, and quite superbly done. Highly recommended by me.

There are a number of bookshelves, all with recommendations you might enjoy – I hope you’ll enjoy browsing as much as I did. The blog blitz continues through to the end of the month, with a new post every other day – you’ll find the full schedule here. And if you’re an author with a book you’d like to be added, you’ll find the guidelines here.