As a wife in Northumberland myself, I was keen to read Judith O’Reilly’s book, wife in Northumberland. I had seen the book for sale in Waterstones but thought I would borrow it from my local library. There was a long waiting list (obviously others wanted to read a book with a local connection) ... Read review
Maybe hormones ate her brain. How else did Judith's husband persuade her to give up her ... more
career and move from her beloved London to Northumberland with two toddlers in tow? Pregnant with number 3 Judith is about to discover that there are one or two th...
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Maybe hormones ate her brain. How else did Judith's husband persuade her to give up her ... more
career and move from her beloved London to Northumberland with two toddlers in tow? Pregnant with number 3, Judith is about to discover that there are one or two things about life in the country that no one told her about.
Advantages: Some humour Disadvantages: Not much happens
As a wife in Northumberland myself, I was keen to read Judith O’Reilly’s book, wife in Northumberland. I had seen the book for sale in Waterstones but thought I would borrow it from my local library. There was a long waiting list (obviously others wanted to read a book with a local connection) After a wait of 3 weeks I was very keen to start reading!
The cover of the book with its cartoon family suggests that this is a humorous book. ... ...saying that she howled with laughter at every page. This sounded like my kind of light read. However this book was not what I had been expecting. There is a lot of humour but it is also a very poignant and moving book.
The book is written in diary form and plots Judith’s reluctant move from London to north Northumberland. The opening entry describes the journey up the A1 .It describes the many warning signs of how many people have ... more
As a wife in Northumberland myself, I was keen to read Judith O’Reilly’s book, wife in Northumberland. I had seen the book for sale in Waterstones but thought I would borrow it from my local library. There was a long waiting list (obviously others wanted to read a book with a local connection) After a wait of 3 weeks I was very keen to start reading!
The cover of the book with its cartoon family suggests that this is a humorous book. To confirm this there is a quote from Jenny Colgan saying that she howled with laughter at every page. This sounded like my kind of light read. However this book was not what I had been expecting. There is a lot of humour but it is also a very poignant and moving book.
The book is written in diary form and plots Judith’s reluctant move from London to north Northumberland. The opening entry describes the journey up the A1 .It describes the many warning signs of how many people have been injured on this road in the past 3 years. I did laugh out loud at her comment that when she arrived in rural Northumberland-it could have been worse, she could have been dead!
Judith clearly loves London and was very reluctant to move. However her husband had always loved Northumberland and as the family have a holiday cottage near Bamburgh, he persuades her to give living up north a year’s trial. Her husband is working in London so for a lot of the time Judith is left to cope with 2 young children and a baby. I could really relate to many of her entries concerning life with young children, such as when the baby hides the car keys in her toy box. There are also several very upsetting entries describing how her 5-year-old son is bullied at school.
Judith has a disabled mother who is partially sighted. I found the description of her relationship with her mother to be very moving and also disturbing at times as Judith considers that she is looking at herself in the future.
The children and husband are never named in this book, which I found frustrating. We are never told what her husband does for a living, just that it is something in the city. The family are friendly with the owners of Bamburgh castle and are able to afford paid help so we can assume they are not working class folk. Judith also clearly moves in affluent circles who can afford horses and own large amounts of land.
As I read this book I started to really dislike Judith and her whinging about Northumberland. I was very irritated by the fact that she managed to run out 9of petrol on several occasions, each time blaming her absent husband for not filling up the car before he returned to London!
Towards the end of the book she describes how her first son was still born just days before his due date and how she still feels he is with her. I began to wonder if her humour was a thin veil to disguise her deep unhappiness and underlying depression. This knowledge made the book slightly disturbing for me.
In the end the family desire to stay in Northumberland and Judith acknowledges that all the family love their new life and as she loves them she is content.
This is not a book I would read again but although it was not what I was expecting, I did mainly enjoy it. It does have lots of humour but as I have said, it is not a light book. It is widely available and costs £7.99. I suggest you do as I did and borrow it from your library!
Advantages: interesting autobiographical read Disadvantages: you lose patience at times
...be staying where she is. Wife in the North chronicles what happens over the next two and half years, that being the amount of time they have given themselves to decide whether they will actually settle there or return home. The book is written in a diary style which makes it very easy to read. Judith O'Reilly uses her keen observation and wry wit to describe the many events she experiences, from the mundane to the bizarre. Much of her story is told ... ...identified with her as a wife and a mother. Many of her children's antics that were described so well reminded me of my two daughters and my heart went out to her when she discovered the floors of their rented house had been painted a shade of bright pink. She does have a 'tell it like it is style' whether it's describing her aged mother's frailties or her son's difficulties in settling at school. I sensed that she needed to distance herself somewhat ...
kingfisher111 26.02.2009
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