Airs and Graces (by Erica James)

(Amazon UK link)

I started reading books by Erica James over twenty years ago, and have liked them all. I’m currently re-reading my collection, some of them for the third time. ‘Airs and Graces’ is actually the first of her books that I ever read, and I re-read it in 2008. So when I picked it up to re-read again a few days ago, I had almost entirely forgotten the storyline.

I say ‘almost’ entirely, because I had vaguely recalled the opening scenes: two friends are meeting for coffee when they come across a runaway teenager called Jo-jo. They invite her to have a hot drink and a pastry with them, and end up looking after her, much to the disapproval of some of the neighbours. 

But I hadn’t remembered much more. Ellen is the main character, a likeable woman in her forties, who is recently divorced. It wasn’t amicable, but very unpleasant, forcing her to move to a much smaller house and leaving her almost penniless. So she’s started a home business selling dried flower arrangements, and it’s just starting to attract visitors.

Hermione is Ellen’s friend. She’s much older, but the two have a shared, quirky sense of humour, and enjoy each other’s company. Hermione is quite eccentric, some of it deliberately put on and some of it natural. She’s also extremely untidy. She is widowed, but very fond of her godson Matthew who is a painter of some renown. 

Then there’s Duncan, Ellen’s solicitor, who has been helpful and considerate through the lengthy process of her divorce. Now she’s no longer his client, he is interested in pursuing a romantic relationship with her. And although Ellen isn’t in love with him, she likes him very much. And she also appreciates that, if she married him, she would no longer have to worry about money…

It’s a character-based story, set mainly in the village where Ellen and Hermione live. Both have to think about changes, to ask themselves questions, and to examine how they really feel.  Hermione had not realised quite how lonely she was until she spends some time with Jo-jo - who is surprisingly good at cleaning, tidying and organising. 

There are other characters, including the family who bought Ellen’s former house: the husband, a gynaecologist, is known, bizarrely, as ‘Bonkers’. He seems rather affected and arrogant until his skills are unexpectedly called upon. His wife is very outgoing and sociable in a somewhat caricatured way but she’s good-hearted too. 

Then there’s Nadia, Duncan’s snooty and domineering mother who disapproves of Ellen and even more so of Jo-jo. There’s Simon, Ellen’s student son, and there’s Bernie, a neighbour of Hermione’s, who lives in a care home that bears little relation to her perception of homes for the elderly.

It’s a testament to the author’s character-building that I can remember the names and some of the characteristics of all these people clearly nearly 24 hours after finishing the book;  sometimes I have a hard time remembering the name of a main protagonist, let alone the minor characters. And while this isn’t the most exciting story - the plot is all a bit predictable - the people are believable, mostly with a good mixture of traits. It wasn’t a book I had to keep reading at all moments, but I liked it, and was pleased that everything - or almost everything - ended in a positive way. 

It’s an example of the author’s earlier works; her later ones are more incisive, with more surprises and more realistic denouements and changes of heart. But there’s little or no bad language, and while people go to bed with each other rather a lot, there’s no gratuitous detail. I would recommend this to anyone who likes gentle character-driven women’s fiction and doesn’t mind it being somewhat predictable. 

Review copyright 2023 Sue's Book Reviews