Heart and Soul by Maeve Binchy

(Amazon UK link)

In my gradual rereading of my collection of Maeve Binchy’s novels, I’m getting towards the end. I’ve just finished ‘Heart and soul’, which was first published in 2008. I acquired a hardback edition a few years later, and read the book in 2012. I liked it very much, but - as ever - had totally forgotten both the characters and the story.

The main setting for this book is a new health clinic being set up in Dublin. It’s supposed to educate heart patients about self-care: nutrition, exercise, and what their different medications are for. The head is Dr Clara Casey who is still feeling a bit sore that she wasn’t offered a top cardiologist post at the attached hospital. She doesn’t really want to take on this new project, but, having agreed to do so, she throws herself into it. She is a determined person, and her ideas for open plan offices and bright decor are adopted despite opposition from some of the hospital board.

Clare has a good instinct about the staff she wants to employ, and she’s usually right. Declan is appointed as the main doctor on duty, with Fiona and Barbara as the nurses. It took me a few chapters to realise that Fiona is the nurse who was one of the main characters in the novel ‘Nights of rain and stars’, which I reread in March. It isn’t necessary to have read that first, but I very much liked catching up on her life, seeing her as a confident young woman who has moved on from a disastrous relationship. And a few of the other characters from that book appear towards the end. 

As with many of Binchy’s novels, the plot digresses and the narrative rambles somewhat as backstories are told and different people introduced. It could have been confusing, or annoying; but Maeve Binchy was a master of this kind of storytelling. I loved seeing insights into Clara’s home life, hearing about her annoying ex-husband, and getting to know her eco conscious vegan daughter who is a teacher, and her indolent and rather selfish daughter Linda who is unemployed. 

One of the new centre employees is a young woman called Ania who comes from Poland. She has quite a backstory too, which is explored in some detail. She’s been taking on a lot of menial jobs in order to earn enough to eat and pay rent, as well as saving for her mother. Clara takes her on as a runner - an office girl, perhaps - and soon discovers that she’s dedicated, very hard-working and loyal, and grateful even for the minimum wage. 

As well as the people working at the centre we get to know some of the patients, too. Some are a tad caricatured. There’s the ultra-religious Kitty who believes the saints will help her more than any medication or lifestyle change. There’s the friendly Bobby who is married to a snooty, arrogant woman called Rosemary. And, later in the book, there’s an incident involving Aidan, who was one of the main characters in the book ‘Evening class’. And there are also several threads involving Father Brian Flynn, who was one of the central people in the novel ‘Whitethorn Woods’.

Oh, and the twins, Maud and Simon are part of this book too; now seventeen, they are taking on more responsibilities, and are hard-working and kind. But they are still devoted to each other and finish each other's sentences.  Maud and Simon are in several of the books by this author, first appearing in ‘Scarlet Feather’, as far as I recall. 

However, although I was delighted to encounter some of these folk again, it’s not at all necessary to have read any of the earlier books. ‘Heart and soul’ stands alone. And while Binchy’s characters are not quite as three dimensional or memorable as those created by Rosamunde Pilcher, they are very likeable. The ‘bad’ guys are mostly off stage, described in the past rather than involved in the present. And the two - one male, one female - who do take part in the stories, are rather to be pitied than despised. 

I thoroughly enjoyed rereading this book, which I finished in just a couple of days despite it having around 450 pages. I would recommend it highly to anyone who has read others of Maeve Binchy’s novels, or who would like a warm, character-based novel that meanders through a year in several people's lives. 

Review copyright 2025 Sue's Book Reviews

Caddy's world (by Hilary McKay)

(Amazon UK link)

I have quite a few books by Hilary McKay on my shelves, most of which I haven’t read in over a decade. She’s a children’s author whom I only discovered in 2011, and I have loved all her books. My favourite series is the one about the Casson series. The first book written was ‘Saffy’s Angel’, but there’s a prequel, which was written later, called ‘Caddy’s world’.  I decided that this time I would read the books in chronological order, rather than order of publication.

I had totally forgotten what this book was about, and hadn’t really remembered any of the characters. I read ‘Caddy’s world’ in 2012 and all I recalled was that I liked it very much. And it was good to read it afresh, without having the later happenings in the family in my mind. 

Caddy (Cadmium) is twelve in this book. She has three best friends: Ruby, who is very clever; Beth, who is considered ‘perfect’; and Alison, who hates everybody. They all started school together aged four or five, and were put at a table by their teacher who informed them that they were going to be friends. And she was right. They did things together right the way through primary school and are now at a secondary school. 

Caddy is considered to be brave, because she is happy to rescue spiders, but she just wants to be an ordinary person, without too much change in her life. She becomes afraid when things spiral out of control, or when she doesn’t know what’s going on. Which is a bit of a problem as her parents are both very bohemian and often forget things. Their house has things everywhere; her mother is an artist, their father often works in London. 

Ruby is orphaned, but lives with all four grandparents, who love her very much. Alison is an only child who lives in an impeccably clean house next door to Caddy’s. Beth has a younger sister, Jools, and loves riding more than anything. And Caddy has two young siblings, Saffy and Indigo. She can remember being an only child, then Indigo was born and Saffy arrived at age three. She is quite fond of them, and they can be amusing; but she knows that money is tight and that her parents argue a lot more than they used to.

This story is basically a coming-of-age book, as Caddy has to learn to deal with some major changes. Alison’s family have been talking about moving away for years, but now, at last, it looks as though it might be happening. Ruby has been offered a place at a prestigious grammar school. Beth is growing faster than she wants to, and is worried that she won’t be able to ride her pony much longer. And there’s a big change coming in the Casson family too, which Caddy is trying to ignore…

Oh, and all four of the girls are rather keen on a boy at their school who goes by the rather odd name of Dingbat. 

The writing is excellent, the characterisation good. Some of the adults are a bit caricatured, perhaps; but Caddy comes across as a thoroughly likeable child who deals well with rebuffs and shouting, and really just wants to stay in the background. I suppose the four girls could be considered to have the four different ‘temperaments’ of classical and other literature: one academic, one loyal, one nice, one spontaneous. But they get along very well, balancing out each other’s quirks and problems. 

There’s some ongoing tension as Beth decides on a drastic diet, Ruby resolves to ignore all paperwork relating to the school, Alison adopts more and more dramatic make-up or hair styles, and Caddy has to deal with many tensions in her family. It’s handled well, with enough tension to make it very readable, but not so much as to scare a child. These books are, after all, written for older children: I would think they’re intended for the 9-12 age range, since the four main characters are twelve. But there’s enough to interest adults too, and a couple of dramatic incidents which, as a parent, I found very moving. 

I’m already looking forward to reading the rest of the books in this series, and would highly recommend them all to anyone who has not yet discovered them. Suitable for fluent readers of about eight and upwards, although there are some minor swear words (mostly used for effect by Saffy’s siblings) and a few incidents when one of the girls is rather ill. No gratuitous detail, but possibly disturbing for a young child.  It would make a great read-aloud for children in this age-group who like listening to books, as there’s a lot that could trigger useful discussion.

Definitely recommended.

Review copyright 2025 Sue's Book Reviews

Between the world and me (by Ta-Nehisi Coates)

(Amazon UK link)

I had never heard of the writer Ta-Nehisi Coates. He’s an American journalist and activist, apparently. This book was allocated for this month’s local book group, and I acquired it second-hand when I was in the UK last summer. So by the time I embarked on ‘Between the world and me’ I had entirely forgotten anything I had read about it.

Since most of our book club books are fiction, it took a few moments for me to realise that this is a non-fiction account, unusually written in the form of a long letter to the author’s son Samori, who was fifteen at the time of writing (the book was published in 2015). It’s a book that has been highly rated and praised, and which was a bestseller. 

The book opens by describing a video interview which the author did, answering questions about what he meant by ‘losing his body’. It’s an odd phrase, and I’m not sure I ever fully understood why he expressed it that way. What he is referring to is the fact that, in his understanding, because he’s black he’s essentially an under class in American society. His body is not his own, even though slavery and segregation are things of the past. 

The whole book then builds on this, with a mixture of anecdotes and reflection. The writing is extremely high quality, poetic in places. And while it gives some horrific examples of white dominance, and almost more shocking examples of black brutality, the narrative manages to avoid complaining or evoking pity. The author apparently accepts history, including his own rather violent childhood. He was regularly beaten with belts; his parents would probably be imprisoned nowadays for such abuse. But they were supposedly doing this as a way to ensure he wouldn’t be treated even more badly by the rest of the world. I don’t understand that logic at all, but it apparently seemed to make sense at the time.

Coats acknowledges that his son is in a different world; yet he wants to give him advice, or at least information that may help him in the future. He explains that ‘race’ as such isn’t a straightforward issue, and goes on to explore different kinds of bigotry, separation and culture. The author is a well-educated, literate and articulate person yet he acknowledges his background in the slums of Baltimore. He doesn’t want a world where everyone is equal, but where everyone is equally respected, able to pursue their dreams and develop their talents irrelevant of their income, skin colour, size, gender or any other potentially discriminating feature.

So there’s a lot of good content in this book, much of which was quite eye-opening to me as a non-American white person. It’s worth reading, in my view, and it’s a message that needs to be said, and read, and taken to heart by those responsible for training and educating people in authority, such as the police.

However, I found it quite heavy going in the first fifty pages or so, and almost gave up before I finished the first (longest) section of the book. The author digresses in a somewhat rambling way - deliberately, I assume - as he starts to explain things. He's partly writing at a meta-level, asking himself why racism happens, wondering what it is, deep down, and what it means to consider oneself 'white', when nobody's skin is truly white. 

There are many names mentioned, too. They are real people, who suffered or were killed without any wrong doing; but I hadn’t heard of most of them. So I didn’t have any feeling for them, or knowledge of the circumstances. And that made it hard to relate. 

And, in my opinion, the elegant language actually detracts, somewhat, from the horrors that are being described. There’s nothing explicit, which is good; but the writing feels too poetic when used for scenes of insults, violence, and so on. I sometimes got caught up in the style of the writing without actually taking in what was being said.

But I kept reading. The second section has more anecdotes, with plenty of detail and no expectation that the reader might know anything about the people concerned.  And it’s written in a more straightforward, story-telling style which I found painted the picture of what was happening very effectively. It was interesting to read about the different experience the author had in France, where he was ‘different’ because of the language constraints, rather than his skin colour. 

Then the last section, which is the shortest of all, is about a meeting the author had with the mother of one of his friends who was murdered by someone in authority, due to mistaken identity. The mother is a well-respected doctor, and her son was brought up in affluence. It makes the point that it’s not just the impoverished who are targeted; it’s also relevant that the police officer who shot her son was himself black. It’s still a tragedy, one that should be averted.

I didn’t think I was going to like this book at first. Perhaps ‘like’ is the wrong word anyway. It’s a very well-written account of events that need to be told from the point of view of someone who relates to the victims. And if the rather rambling, poetic style is a bit off-putting, perhaps it’s deliberate, to show another difference - to help the reader, no matter how idealistic, to see how culture and education don’t actually make some people feel valued or of equal worth to those with white skin.

I very much doubt if I’ll read this again, but I’m glad I finished it.  Worth persevering if you have any interest in this topic. 

Review copyright 2025 Sue's Book Reviews

Cressida (by Clare Darcy)

(Amazon UK link)

I’ve been enjoying re-reading my historical ‘Regency’ novels by Clare Darcy. I don’t have all her books, and they’re long out of print. So there’s no easy way to acquire the ones I’m missing. Nor can I get hold of new copies of the ones I have that are falling to pieces, which is the case with ‘Cressida’. I last read this in 2001 and had forgotten both the characters and the story. 

Cressida is an interesting young woman, though I’m not sure I ever entirely believed in her. She’s in her early twenties, and is vivacious and attractive. But she has never married, although she has been engaged more than once. She is currently quite close to Lord Langham, and rumour has it that they will get married, although she’s not entirely sure and knows she doesn’t really love him. 

Lady Constance is a distant relative of Cressida’s, and lives with her as a kind of companion and chaperone. She’s quite talkative, but kind-hearted, and was left penniless when her husband died. Cressida inherited a lot of money from an aunt some years before the story starts, and she enjoys being as independent as was possible in the era. It’s probably wet around 1815, since references are made to Waterloo.

Lady Constance receives a letter from another young relative called Kitty, who wonders if she could visit, and make her ‘come-out’ as a debutante. She writes very properly, and says that the aunt who was going to do this is ill. Cressida is happy to have someone else in the household, and Kitty arrives a few days later. She seems a likeable, willing young girl who is good at needlework and very grateful for any help or clothes she is given.

Then there’s Captain Deverell, known to his friends and relatives as ‘Dev’, who was briefly engaged to Cressida some years earlier, but broke it off (or persuaded her that they would not suit). He’s been out of the country, but recently made his fortune after Waterloo, and is back in society. Cressida has mixed feelings about this. She’s still very angry with him, but also eager to know if they can meet again as friends.

Their first meeting is fraught with tension, and this continues through the book. Dev flirts with Kitty, who is rather younger than he is, but pretty and apparently quite malleable. Cressida keeps planning to be nice to Dev, and they end up quarrelling. I was pretty sure they would end up together - that’s the way these novels work - but they don’t appear to have anything in common, or any way of speaking to each other without being insulting. 

It’s quite a good story, involving a rather cynical ‘Beau’ who is also very taken with Kitty, and a likeable young officer, a friend of Dev’s, who befriends Cressida and would love to spend more time with Kitty. The beau has no intention of marrying anyone, and the young officer is self-deprecating and rather shy, and doesn’t think he has any chance at all when compared to Kitty’s other admirers.

The writing is good, the settings and conversations authentic. There’s some excitement, and inevitably everything gets sorted out in the end, though I couldn’t entirely believe in the drastic change of heart that happens to Cressida. And I wasn’t at all sure about one of the potential couples who emerge. The characterisation is not as good as that of Georgette Heyer, despite Clare Darcy being touted as her successor, and there isn’t really any humour or ironies, though parts of the book are quite light-hearted.

I’m glad I re-read it, and perhaps I’ll do so again in another decade or so. If you love Georgette Heyer’s writing and long for more, this author is the only one I’ve come across who comes anywhere near close. However the characterisation is not as good as that of Heyer, and there isn’t really any humour or ironies, though parts of the book are quite light-hearted.

So I’d recommend this in a low-key way if you like the Regency romance style of historical fiction.

Note that Clare Darcy's books seem to be available for the Kindle, but reviews suggest that they may not be full editions. 

Review copyright 2025 Sue's Book Reviews

Still crazy (by Adrian Plass)

(Amazon UK link)

I have loved almost everything Adrian Plass has written since I first discovered his first wonderful ‘Sacred diary’ book back in the late 1980s. He is a very versatile writer, with novels, poetry and non fiction in a variety of genres. Underlying them all is his Christian faith, often with profound questions being asked. Yet he is never preachy or pushy.

I was delighted when I read that he had published another book, ‘Still crazy’, a few years ago. I waited until it was out in paperback before adding it to my wishlist, and was given it for my birthday a year ago. I was going to read it almost immediately, but the blurb on the back mentions that this collection includes ‘fresh entries from the Sacred Diary and new insights into the world of the Shadow Doctor.’ So I decided to re-read Adrian Plass’s full-length fiction books over the course of the past year, in preparation.

And finally I picked this book up to read a couple of weeks ago. I quickly realised that it’s mostly non-fiction, and quite a random collection. The introduction describes the author’s own ‘craziness’, as he puts it, including a bizarre incident when he found himself balancing a bottle of wine on his head, waiting for his wife to arrive… 

Plass also claims that God works in an ‘off balance’ kind of way, particularly through Jesus. And, over the course of this book, he challenges a lot of traditional Christian thinking and rigid evangelicalism. Some might find what he says disturbing, but to me it’s refreshingly honest. He doesn’t try to give answers, and doesn’t criticise those who stand by their long-held beliefs. But he - hopefully - opens a few minds, and encourages his readers to think outside the box.

There are nine main chapters to the book. I had forgotten that the blurb only mentions two updates from the author’s fictional books. For some reason I had thought there might be an update on the Robinson family, but there isn’t. Even more disappointingly, there is no update on the people in the book ‘Ghosts’. I don’t know why I had thought there might be; the ending is tantalisingly open. And the characters in these books all managed to get under my skin. 

However, the chapter ‘Adrian Plass and the summer festival’ is a welcome addition to the ‘Sacred diary’ books, and does update a very stressful situation that arose, relating to his fictional daughter-in-law Josie, at the end of ‘Adrian Plass and the church weekend’. I liked that chapter very much.  I also appreciated the eighth chapter, ‘Shadow of shadows’, which gives some insight into the past, with some anecdotes involving Doc’s late wife Miriam, who was only briefly mentioned in 'The past awaits'. 

Other chapters are a mixture of anecdotes, explanations, brief conversations and poems. Adrian Plass writes well, as ever, and I found myself quite caught up in each chapter; I mostly read one per day, sometimes just half a chapter if it was particularly long. But looking back, I’m not sure I remember anything in particular. There’s a chapter entitled ‘All people great and small’ which describes some apparently ordinary people who had a significant effect on the author’s life, albeit in apparently tiny ways. 

There’s a chapter about surviving during the pandemic, which I could certainly relate to. There’s an interesting chapter about Scargill House, a retreat centre where Adrian and his wife Bridget worked for some time (and where they still sometimes run workshops). And the final chapter is about love. Once again it’s full of different anecdotes and ideas, apparently unconnected, as well as some poems.

I’m not a fan of poetry in general, and though I did try to read through the poems in the book, they didn’t really do anything for me. But I enjoyed the rest of the book - once I’d accepted the lack of updates on ‘Ghosts’ or the Robinson family - and am sure I will read it again in a few years’ time. It didn't make me laugh aloud like some of the author's other books, and it didn't move me to tears. But I smiled a few times, and there was much to ponder.

Recommended if you like Adrian Plass’s work; but not so much as an introduction to his writing. ‘Still crazy’ gives the impression of being an eclectic gathering of his thoughts, almost as if he wanted to capture several bits and pieces, rather than writing a more coherent book. The book cover rather reflects this.Still, some of his other books are similarly random in structure and style. And hopefully there will be more in future.

Review copyright 2025 Sue's Book Reviews