I loved Mary Nickson/Sheepshanks’ books the first time I read them, and have thoroughly enjoyed re-reading them over the course of the past six or seven months. I’ve come to the end, and have just finished reading ‘The Venetian House’, which I first read in 2008. It’s so long ago that I had entirely forgotten the storyline.
Victoria is the main character. We meet her briefly as a child, in a prologue that introduces her along with her cousin Guy and his best friend Richard. They’re staying in Corfu with Guy and Victoria’s grandmother, a half-Greek lady called Evanthi. Victoria is rather younger than they are, and sometimes they see her as a bit of a nuisance. But as she grows up she joins in their pursuits, and she finds Richard very kind, sometimes shielding her from Guy’s stormy temper. She announces that she’s going to marry him when she grows up…
The story then leaps forward about twenty years. Victoria, who has a six-year-old son called Jake, has had a shocking bereavement and is still trying to process it. She goes through the motions for a while, and then decides that the best thing to do is to go and stay with Evanthi for a while. Evanthi is in her eighties, and hasn’t been well, although she seems to be recovering.
Alongside this thread, we meet a brilliant photographer called Patrick. His wife Rachel is quite selfish, and they have been growing apart for some time. They have two older teenage children, Sam and Sophie, and they also have a two-year-old called Posy. Rachel was not at all maternal with her older two children, but she went to a counsellor called Bronwen who helped her to relax… and now she’s not just maternal, she’s turned into a possessive helicopter parent who gives into Posy’s every whim…
Patrick’s great uncle Hugh is an artist, and although I’d forgotten the plot, I quickly guessed that not only was Patrick going to meet and rather like Victoria, but Hugh was going to turn out to be connected with the family too. It could have seemed like a very unlikely coincidence that Patrick has been commissioned to photograph Evanthi’s house, which leads to a startling discovery - but Evanthi is quite religious, and doesn’t believe in coincidences. So strong are her views that it made the story entirely believable.
It’s a character-based story primarily, involving two deeply passionate love stories, and two marriages that should probably never have happened. Even then, there’s much discussion about the benefits of both, including the children. The author has a gift of characterisation, and in this book, the last one she wrote, the people almost jump out of the page.
Evanthi is a delightful creation, typical of some elderly women I’ve met with Greek or half-Greek ancestry. Victoria has had a very stressful life, but has a tremendous inner strength. Sophie is a typical teenager, driven by hormones, loving her parents and irritated by them at the same time.
If the men are slightly more two-dimensional, it doesn’t matter. Both Hugh and Patrick are extremely likeable, as is the good-natured Sam. Jake, too, is a believable little boy. I found Guy quite hard to take; the backstory that he eventually tells Victoria (which I had entirely forgotten, so found quite startling when it was revealed) portrays him in a very poor light. But it doesn’t much matter; his role is mainly that of catalyst and is mostly in the background.
It’s quite a long book, over 500 pages in the paperback, and I didn’t want to read it too rapidly. The writing is excellent, the descriptive passages just right to paint an overview of important locations and people. The conversations feel real and unforced, and the story itself gently winds its way to an encouraging conclusion. Not every end is tied up; but many issues are examined, and brought to light, and Victoria starts to see that she is an important person who needs to make some decisions of her own.
All in all, I thought this a wonderful book. It's light in places, very moving in others, and an excellent story. Very highly recommended to anyone who likes thoughtful character-based women’s fiction. It's now available in Kindle form, although the print edition can sometimes be found second-hand.
Review copyright 2020 Sue's Book Reviews
I have been thoroughly enjoying re-reading Mary Sheepshanks’ novels - four of them in that name, and two in her alternative name of Mary Nickson. I’ve just finished re-reading ‘Secrets and Shadows’, written under the latter name. It’s a sequel to ‘Off Balance’ which I re-read in January, and I remember being delighted to discover this when I first read ‘Secrets and Shadows’ nearly twelve years ago.
This book takes place about six years after the end of ‘Off Balance’. Giles and Isabel have established an arts centre connected with their large home, and run regular writing retreats. As the story starts, one of this is about to begin, and the bulk of the story follows the participants as they start to explore their talents (or otherwise) and get to know each other.
One of the writing group is Marnie, a prickly young American woman who is on a quest to discover something in Scotland. We already know something about her when we meet her; the first chapters introduce her as a young child, neglected by her mother, when she meets and becomes friendly with an elderly lady called Luciana. Twenty years later we quickly learn that Luciana left her some clues to what she called a treasure hunt, and also a great deal of money.
Then there’s Louisa, a young woman of similar age, who is related to Isabel. She’s bright and very friendly, but there’s clearly something not quite right. She’s broken up with her likeable (but dull) boyfriend, but doesn’t know what she wants. It becomes increasingly clear as the novel progresses that all is not well with Louisa; and she is contrasted strongly with Marnie, although the two manage to become friendly.
Christopher is a personable young man who has a secret; again we learn fairly soon what it is, but he’s been through a very rough time, and has also recently ended a relationship. He is quite serious about writing and hopes to learn whether or not he has any talent. He doesn’t expect to find two attractive young women who both take a shine to him…
The other writing group participants are more caricatured. There’s one married couple: the husband is self-centred and arrogant; he’s had some writing published and thinks he is much more advanced than the rest of the group. His long-suffering wife is regularly put down by him, but she has done some writing too… and gradually emerges as a likeable, if rather flat character.
Then there’s a woman who’s passionate about gardening, a military man, and a woman who runs a shop. They are different enough that I could easily distinguish them, and they add some flavour and background to the group and the various subplots, but they’re not particularly significant.
Meanwhile Isabel and Giles have a visiting small boy, Rory, who is Isabel’s nephew… and they quickly realise that her sister Lorna is, once again, trying to destroy their marriage. This storyline is a good sideline to the main plot, which involves Marnie’s search and the gradual uncovering of other people’s secrets. Isabel is a very three-dimensional, believable person and I did find myself feeling a tad sorry for Lorna towards the end; she’s quite nasty, but it’s partly a result of her childhood, knowing that no matter how hard she tried, people liked her younger sister better.
I have to admit that, in places, the writing is a bit wordy. I skimmed a few of the descriptions of scenery, and skipped over a couple of authorial comments and one or two excesses of introspection. But they’re so minor that I don’t think I noticed them the first time I read the book, and they certainly didn’t detract from my enjoyment of this excellent novel.
Very highly recommended if you like women’s fiction, but It’s best if read after ‘Off Balance’. Sometimes available second-hand, or in Kindle form.
Review copyright 2020 Sue's Book Reviews
When I first discovered Mary Sheepshanks' books, nearly twenty years ago, they were not all easy to get hold of, and I acquired them gradually. She only wrote four novels under this name, and by the time I read ‘Off-Balance’, I had not noticed that it was - in a sense - a sequel to ‘Facing the Music’. But I re-read that just a couple of months ago, and the name Flavia is an unusual one…
Not that Flavia is the main character in this book. She doesn’t appear until about half-way through, as a guest musician. The main characters are the Grant family who live in an old mansion in Scotland, part of which they are turning into a performing arts centre. The building work is complete, and at the start of the book they’re expecting a young and talented artist called Daniel who will come to paint some backdrops.
Giles and Isabel are happily married, and have two children. Ten-year-old Amy is a very talented violinist, but her twin brother Edward has quite severe special needs: nobody quite knows what they are, but there’s much that seems like autism, and some other difficulties. Amy loves him and often defends him against nasty comments, but inevitably he needs a lot of attention, and even his parents sometimes find him frustrating.
Isabel is sociable and they have a wide circle of friends. They have two Australians working with the family, who deal with a lot of the chores and take on some child-minding, and they’re all reasonably contented. Then Isabel’s sister Lorna arrives after a divorce, and offers to help with some of the administration. She’s talented in this respect, but also very manipulative with a jealous and vindictive streak. Edward takes an instant dislike to her, and Amy is unimpressed too.
I found Lorna a difficult character to believe in. There’s a bit of back-story, and we see her as a well-behaved, polite and very pretty little girl who adores her little sister. She finds it upsetting that Isabel, despite being very mischievous, rarely gets into trouble - people laugh about her, and roll their eyes, but seem to find her cute. But when Lorna does something she shouldn’t, nobody laughs. I could understand and even sympathise with this child who feels usurped, and unappreciated by her family. I could see too why, when she starts to fall in love, she doesn’t want to introduce her boyfriend to the family - and why she is deeply upset when, after she takes a break, her boyfriend (Giles) has become engaged to her sister.
But none of that seems consistent with the really nasty person Lorna has become by the time we meet her. She’s so unpleasant that everyone - other than Giles - finds her almost unbearable. But Giles seems to have a blind spot… and Lorna is determined to win him back.
It’s a character-based story, revolving around this mostly likeable community of people, with a bit of music as an extra theme. The plot is mostly gentle, exploring relationships and friendships, testing love and integrity. Other than Lorna I found all the main characters three-dimensional and believable. There are some caricatures amongst the neighbours; that doesn’t matter with minor characters, and adds a touch of humour to balance the more serious issues.
It’s extremely well-written and overall I found it a very enjoyable story. I did remember odd incidents, mostly the ones involving Edward, although I had forgotten all the details. I found myself moved to tears in an incident near the end.
I had not remembered how the story ended, nor whether Giles and Isabel managed to stay together. And I had totally forgotten that, after the book seems to have finished, there’s an epilogue which paves the way for a sequel. It took me a long time to realise that there actually is a sequel - ‘Secrets and Shadows’, by the same author under her alternative name of Mary Nickson. I look forward very much to re-reading that in another month or so.
Very highly recommended. It’s not necessary to have read ‘Facing the Music’ first, but I find it adds to the enjoyment to know some of the past history of someone who has appeared in an earlier book. 'Off-Balance' is long out of print, sadly, but often available second-hand.
Review copyright 2020 Sue's Book Reviews
I do like Mary Sheepshanks’ novels! She only wrote four under this name, and another two under the name of Mary Nickson. I’m re-reading them at the rate of about one a month, and just finished ‘Picking up the Pieces’. I had no idea, when I first read it in 2001, that it’s a sort of sequel to ‘A Price for Everything’. It doesn’t involve the same main characters, but some of them reappear in more minor roles.
Kate, a 55-year-old grandmother, is the main protagonist of this story. Back when I first read it, I had just turned 41, so thought of Kate as a mature, older woman. Now, nearly five years older than Kate, with grandchildren of my own, I see her as a contemporary. Not that it matters. She’s a very likeable person with a good sense of humour, but her self-confidence is very low. The reasons for that become gradually clearer over the course of the book.
We meet Kate on the anniversary of her husband Oliver’s death. She’s at a lunch party with some people she doesn’t much like, and leaves early. She decides to go for a drive, and then takes her dog for a walk in the grounds of a mansion which she knows is empty. She sees a place that looks like the house of her dreams, albeit very run down, and when she sits down for a rest, she drops off to sleep. She wakes to find herself being observed…
Kate lives with her mother-in-law Cecily, a strong-minded lady in her eighties whose conversation is peppered with amusing malapropisms. Kate and Cecily get along very well; unfortunately Kate doesn’t get along so well with her daughter Jo. Jo is a prickly kind of person, immensely talented at cooking and organising, but she carries a secret that isn’t revealed until near the end. Jo has three children: the teenage Harriet, whose father is unknown, and two younger children with her husband Mike. She struggles to deal with motherhood, particularly with Harriet.
So there are four generations involved in this book, and the author succeeds in making them all believable, well-rounded characters. Harriet has an excellent relationship with Kate, and that aggravates Jo. I could almost hear some of their conversations, and felt so sorry for Harriet, going through teenage angst and feeling unwanted. Yet Jo, despite her prickliness, is also a very realistic person.
It’s primarily character-driven, as the people in the book explore relationships, make decisions, are willing to compromise, and find love, sometimes in unexpected places. A marriage founders, two teenagers behave rebelliously, and various people discover new talents.
I had entirely forgotten the plot of this story, so there were a couple of surprises that I was not expecting at all - perhaps it’s good to put a book aside for eighteen years, although I like to think that I’ll read it again before I’m getting close to Cecily’s age. The pace is good, the writing excellent, and by the time I was half way through I could barely put the book down. I chuckled a couple of times, and I was very moved in some of the sections towards the end.
The only part about the book that seemed out of place was a meeting when Kate and her friends go to visit a supposed spiritualist couple hosted by Lady Rosamund (one of the main characters of ‘A Price for Everything’). The scene is somewhat ridiculous, the author making a mockery of the people concerned, so perhaps it was there for the humour value; yet it didn’t add to the story at all.
Other than that, though, I loved 'Picking up the Pieces' and would recommend it very highly to anyone who likes women’s fiction. Sadly it's no longer in print, but it's fairly often available second-hand.
Review copyright 2019 Sue's Book Reviews
I discovered Mary Sheepshanks (now known as Mary Nickson) nearly twenty years ago. I liked the novel I read by her and then gradually acquired all her others. I enjoyed them very much. But I’m only re-reading them for the first time now, at a rate of about one per month.
I first read ‘Facing the music’ in June 2002, and have re-read it in the last few days. Although I had forgotten most of the storyline, I did recall a strong feeling that one main character was treated quite badly by the author (albeit in the hands of another character). I was pretty sure this was near the end of the book, when a relationship ends through no fault at all of one person.
So it was with somewhat mixed feelings that I started re-reading the book. I was soon drawn into the storyline; it primarily features a young woman called Flavia. She is a top class flautist who is being brought to the public's attention by a conductor called Antoine. She is in love with him although he’s clearly using her, and is unpopular with most of his orchestra. But he is also respected as an excellent conductor.
Disaster strikes when Flavia suddenly becomes very ill during an important concert. She pulls through, but has a long convalescence, and Antoine drops her. She’s not sure if she wants to continue as a solo musician, although her mother pushes her to practice and get back on stage. So when she’s offered a temporary part-time job teaching music at a boys’ prep school, she accepts - and finds it rewarding and enjoyable.
Much of the story takes place in the school, and we get to know several of the staff members. Gervaise, the Head, who is friendly with Flavia’s father (Head of the connected secondary school), is kind-hearted and gentle, albeit somewhat naive. I liked him enormously. One or two of the staff are caricatured, including an unpleasant and rather lecherous man, but others are believable and well-drawn. I particularly liked Meg, the matron, who is secretly keen on Gervaise…
There are other supporting characters who are also caricatured. There’s Gervaise’s eccentric sister, for one, and Flavia’s flatmate in London, Trish. And there are several of Flavia’s relatives, most of whom are warm and caring - and who haven’t really let her grow up. She’s used to being admired and looked after, and although she is not at all selfish or spoilt, and is quite independent, she does like the feeling of being protected.
Various people make mistakes, but I found myself more in sympathy with several characters this time. While the final chapter is still somewhat poignant, I knew what was coming and realised that the ending does leave someone else with hope for the future.
The writing is excellent, the conversation believable, and the conversations between adults and children (mostly boys at the school) works well. The pace is good, and I found it quite difficult to put down by the time I was around half-way through. There’s some bad language but it’s not excessive, and mostly used for effect. The romantic threads are fairly low-key, and the bedroom doors firmly closed behind the few mentioned scenes of intimacy.
Definitely recommended if you like women’s fiction with rather more plot than many.
Review copyright 2019 Sue's Book Reviews
In the past eighteen months I have started re-reading, in a mostly organised fashion, the books by some of my favourite authors. I decided it was time to re-read my books by Mary Sheepshanks (confusingly also known as Mary Nickson). It had been quite a long time since I read any of them, so I decided to start with ‘A Price for Everything’, which I first read in 2006.
I had totally forgotten what this book was about, and the characters in it. So that was a good start - it felt like a new book, but I knew I was going to like it. It’s basically about a home - a family mansion which, as happened so often towards the end of the 20th century, is becoming far too expensive to maintain. Archie, Lord Dunton, is the owner. It passed to him after the death of his grandmother just six months before the story starts.
Archie is a realist. He wants to make the farmland pay for itself, but has proposed moving his family to a much smaller home on the estate, one which they could improve and live in without too much extra expense. But his wife Sonia adores the house, and is determined to stay. This has caused considerable friction in their marriage.
Archie and Sonia have four children. Polly is a teenager, Tom must be about twelve and is at boarding school most of the time. Then there are two younger ones: Birdie must be about six or seven, and Cassie is probably three or four. These two young children are possibly the most believable people in the book. Cassie has a strong sense of her own importance, a bossy nature, and an expectation that people will do whatever she wants. Birdie is much more sensitive, mostly willing to go along with her sister’s wishes, and very aware of tension or lack of harmony in the home. So much so that she has nightmares, and upset stomachs. I liked Birdie very much.
They also have several friends - mostly upper or upper-middle class folk like themselves, and there are various picnics, tennis parties and gatherings for lunches or dinners. I didn’t find any of the friends particularly memorable or distinguishable; they were mostly somewhat two-dimensional, playing their parts in the background. Other than the voluptuous Rosie, married to someone who mostly ignores her. Sonia is pretty sure that Archie is having an affair with her…
Archie’s mother is important in the story, although I never entirely believed in her. She’s opinionated and vain, although fond of her family in a general kind of way. She travels the world, often dragging her 16-year-old daughter Martha with her, and she likes men. When we meet her, she’s embroiled with a dubious monk, who is part of a bizarre sect.
It’s a light-hearted story, on the whole; I don’t suppose it’s all supposed to be taken seriously, as there are highly caricatured people and some mildly amusing interchanges here and there. There’s an over-pious and enthusiastic vicar who tends to be a bit of a figure of fun in the parish, although church-going and church involvement are seen as important. His very middle-class family also manages, in a slightly pointed way, to demonstrate some of the differences between the values and practices of traditional British classes.
But the underlying theme is a serious one - of finding what we value, and (as the title implies) deciding how important our families and homes are. It also gently examines what price we might be willing to pay to maintain them. Of course the situations in the book are only relevant to a tiny number of people; but the principles are still relevant, and possibly all the more palatable for being seen in families far removed from the majority.
The writing is good, with just the right amount of description and introspection for my tastes. It didn’t particularly grip me; despite having entirely forgotten the content of the book, I assumed the home would eventually be saved, but had no idea whether Archie and Sonia’s marriage would be. The final chapters of the book are perhaps a tad dramatic and cliched, forcing Sonia to make a difficult decision; everything then sorts itself out - bar some nostalgia and regrets - rather quickly.
Overall I enjoyed the book a lot, and am glad I re-read it. 'A Price for Everything' is long out of print in paperback, but can now be bought in Kindle form.
Review copyright 2019 Sue's Book Reviews
I have very much enjoyed all the novels by Mary Sheepshanks, whom I discovered some years ago. So I was delighted to find that she is now writing as Mary Nickson, and has produced two more books in the past few years. This one, alas, is now out of print but I was able to buy it inexpensively from Abebooks.
'The Venetian House' is a wonderful book! It starts with a prologue: Victoria, her cousin Guy and his schoolfriend Richard are all on holiday in Corfu. Victoria adores her wild cousin Guy, and is very fond of the more stable Richard.
Then the book moves forward many years, to a time when Victoria has been married to Richard for eight years; they have a son, Jake, who is six. Richard has been a devoted and reliable husband, even if he somewhat lacks Guy's sparkle, but he is unaccountably depressed when Guy gets married in secret. It makes Victoria wonder if he has been having an affair with Guy's new wife...
Then a horrific accident happens, which change everyone's lives dramatically. Even worse, several people wonder if it was in fact an accident. For various reasons, Victoria and Jake go to Corfu for a break, to stay with her elderly grandmother.
Meanwhile, Patrick, a writer/photographer, is having a difficult time in his marriage to the insecure, temperamental Rachel. She has always been rather cold to their two teenagers, Sam and Sophie, but is passionately attached to their unplanned third child, Posy, who is fast becoming a spoiled brat.
Moreover, Rachel is far too strongly influenced by her dubious therapist Bronwen. Patrick asks her to go to Corfu with him, but she refuses - so he takes Sam and Sophie, with a commission to write about The Venetian House, which is the home of Victoria's grandmother.
The two families find themselves very attracted to each other, and an incredible coincidence is discovered... I tend to be a bit suspicious of coincidences in novels, but I was so caught up in this one that I could see it coming, and even believe in it. it certainly didn't spoil the story in any way.
Wonderful writing, excellent characterisation, right from the elderly grandmother down to six-year-old Jake, all trying to come to terms with past pain and problems, all with hope and faith for the future. Moving in places - enough so that tears came to my eyes more than once - and I found it almost impossible to put down.
Highly recommended.
Review copyright Sue's Book Reviews, 16th July 2008
It was only when trying to find a website about one of my favourite authors, Mary Sheepshanks, that I discovered that she is also known as Mary Nickson (her maiden name) and has published two novels under that name in recent years. They went immediately on my wish-list, and I was delighted to receive one of them for a recent birthday.
'Secrets and Shadows' is a fairly long book, in saga style. It's character-driven, as were the previous books by this author, and I found the characters came to life vividly and realistically.
The opening section features an elderly lady, who feels somewhat invisible while on holiday, and a small, neglected American girl called Marnie. They form an unlikely friendship, which means a lot to them both, and the elderly woman is determined to keep in touch with Marnie.
The main section of the book is set in Scotland, at an arts centre which runs various courses through the year. As this section opens, a writing course is about to begin. It's the first of the season, and the hosts - Isabel and Giles - are wondering what to expect. It wasn't until mention was made of their twin children, Amy and Edward - Amy a brilliant violinist, Edward a boy with special needs - that something clicked, and I realised this book is in fact a sequel - of sorts - to 'Off Balance (by Mary Sheepshanks)', which I thoroughly enjoyed some years ago.
Isabel and Giles are somewhat in the background in this book, interacting with the nine people who attend the course. These include Marnie, now an adult; Louisa, an old friend of Isabel's, and some other characters who were slightly caricatured, making them easy to remember and also an amusing foil for some of the more serious issues that arose in the book, looking back at the childhood and early adulthood of the participants on the course.
I enjoyed the book from the perspective of being about writing; I enjoyed it because it was set in Scotland, featuring one or two places I actually know, with even a mention of Janetta's ice cream in St Andrews, one of my favourite places! But most of all I enjoyed it because the main characters were so real, and some of the situations were extremely moving.
Mary Nickson writes very well, with a great gift of characterisation. I found this book so interesting that I could barely put it down once I had started, and finished 450 pages in about two days.
Highly recommended - I hope this author will write many more novels! Unfortunately it seems to be out of print already in the USA.
Review copyright © Sue's book reviews, 16th May 2008. All rights reserved.
'A Price for Everything' was the first novel by Mary Sheepshanks, and it's now out of print but widely available second-hand. I found it, on the whole, an enjoyable read. The heroine, Sonia (Lady Duntan) finds herself struggling to cope with the huge family home which she loves - and which is in need of an enormous amount of restoration.
As the novel opens, she is trying to find ways of raising money to make the home habitable, and her husband Archie is convinced they would be better off living in another, smaller house on the estate. This causes tension, which is not eased when Archie's mother and young half-sister come to stay unexpectedly, along with a very strange 'monk' from a small religious sect.
I found Sonia very believable, and could empathise with her through most of the book. She loves her four children and her husband, but often finds herself snapping at them. She finds it hard to relate deeply to anybody, or to talk with Archie about things that are important to her. She needs time to herself - and is, in a small way, an artist.
Archie is a bit more predictable, and the children are slightly caricatured, other than the delightful Birdie, who at about six years old is enormously sensitive to all that goes on, full of anxieties and fears. Other less important characters are also rather typecast and flat, but that doesn't really matter - they are easily distinguishable, and fulfil their roles reasonably well.
The book is well-written, the plot moves at the right sort of pace, the characterisations made me care (at least about Sonia and Birdie) and the ending was satisfying in a thought-provoking way. So on the whole, I thought it a good book.
One (perhaps minor) gripe is the way the church is portrayed. Not the strange monk, from a dubious sect, but the local Vicar who's treated as a figure of fun. The congregation seem to consist either of peculiar people who don't belong anywhere, or traditionalists (like the Dunsan family) who attend because they've always done so, as a matter of duty.
The Vicar's attempts at starting a prayer group is written as a comedy scene, although it was rather sad than humorous. He's shown to be rather a hypocrite in many ways. No doubt there are vicars like this, but their part in the book did not seem to add to the story in any way. I thought it was sad to see an otherwise excellent plot spoilt with these vain attempts at humour.
The other thing I found a bit objectionable was that Polly - Sonia's oldest daughter - has a friend with a very 'modern' mother who discusses sex with her in detail. So mealtimes are often punctuated by Polly announcing something else which she has learned, and asking embarrassing questions of her parents. Perhaps this too was supposed to be amusing, but I didn't find it so. It wasn't part of the plot, it didn't enhance any of the characters, it made Polly look rather stupid and attention-seeking, and it could easily have been left out.
Nonetheless, despite these things, I did mostly enjoy the book. The author's style is generally very good, conversations mostly realistic, and it flows well.
Mary Sheepshanks is one of those authors I came across by accident, picking up one of her books in a second-hand shop, and thinking the blurb looked interesting.
I was so impressed I have got hold of her other books - not very many, sadly - and have just discovered that she also writes under the name of Mary Nickson.
'Facing the music' is a delightful book. Flavia, a brilliant flute player, collapses in an important concert, much to the horror of her boyfriend Antoine, who is the conductor. He's not so much concerned for her health, however, as for his reputation. He drops her, and - on the rebound - she decides to go and work at a boys' school. Moreover, she accepts a marriage proposal from Gervaise, the Head.
Unfortunately they are not at all suited, and she falls in love with the father of one of the school students. Crisis occurs when someone runs away...
Fast-moving and very well-written with lovable and believable characters. I felt that Gervaise got rather a raw deal, unfairly, but other than that I thoroughly enjoyed the book.
Definitely recommended, if you can find it. Unfortunately it's out of print, but 'Facing the Music' can often be found second-hand.
I only discovered Mary Sheepshanks recently, but enjoyed what I read, so added one or two of her other books to my wish list, and received one for Christmas.
'Off Balance' is a wonderful book. Isobel and Giles live in a huge house in Scotland, which is being partly converted to an arts/drama centre. They have twin children: Amy, a charming and talented young violinist, and Edward, who has a form of autism combined with some physical handicaps.
Isobel's sister Lorna - an old girlfriend of Giles'- arrives to take over some of the administration of the centre. Shortly afterwards, a talented artist called Daniel arrive to work on backdrops.
The people are very warm and believable, with Edward in particular a highly sympathetic character. Family relationships are well explored, and serious problems almost strike Isobel and Giles' marriage before the climax. This leads to renewed strength and determination for the future.
Overall I thought it excellent, and was even more pleased when, in the epilogue, it seemed as though there might be a sequel. Unfortunately, I don't think there is.
Highly recommended.
(Note: over six years later I discovered that a sequel - or at least, a follow-up - was written, although Mary Sheepshanks started using her maiden name, Mary Nickson. The sequel is 'Secrets and Shadows', reviewed here in 2008.)
Mary Sheepshanks isn't a very well-known author; I first found one of her books almost by accident, in a second-hand shop. I liked the pastel cover and the blurb on the back sounded interesting!
'Picking up the Pieces' is a very enjoyable novel, featuring a four-generation family. Kate, the grandmother, is the main protagonist. she has been recently widowed, and is determined to become more independent.
Kate shares a home with her delightful and outspoken mother-in-law, while almost next-door lives her rather demanding daughter, Joanna, who clashes frequently with her teenage daughter Harriet.
As Kate starts to develop her social life, falls in love, and decides to move and begin a new career, Joanna expects her to become a comfortable granny who will babysit on demand. So clashes are inevitable,,,
Excellent, realistic characters in a gentle but clear plot and many enjoyable sub-plots. All in all, I very much enjoyed this book and determined to buy more by Mary Sheepshanks as soon as possible. Most, unfortunately, are now out of print.
