Kate Morton - The Distant Hours

Review by Babs on show feb 2012
I really enjoyed Kate Morton's first two books - The House at Riverton and The Forgotten Garden -so was really looking forward to reading The Distant Hours. But, oh, what a disappointment it was! It is very long, 670 Pages, and although the story is interesting, it seemed to me to have been unnecessarily extended with page after page of not very much happening.

It tells the story of three sisters living in a run-down castle in Kent, all of whom are either eccentric or pretty loopy and veers between 1939, when they take in a young evacuee from London, and 1992 when, by coincidence, this evacuee's daughter is commissioned to write the forward for a new edition of a gothic hrror story writen by the sister's father in 1918. There are lots of twists and turns as the ghastliness of what happened before and during the war is revealed and which has left its mark on all of them.

But it is so long and contains so much waffle that I could hardly bring myself to care about any of it. I battled through to the last page but, oh how I wish an editor had done what editor's are there for - to cut down and weed out all irrelevant material that takes the reader's attention from a potentially very good story. So, very sorry, Kate Morton, please try to write a shorter one next time!

Kate Morton - The Distant Hours

this review was written by Sue Major and read live on the bookshow 14th May 2015

A long lost letter arrives in the post and Edie Burchall finds herself on a journey to Milderhurst castle , a great mouldering home where the Blythe spinsters live and where her own mother was billeted as an evacuee 50 years before.

The older sisters have spent their lives not only looking after the rather sinister Daddy but also their younger sister Juniper, who hasn't been the same since she was jilted in 1941.

Inside the decaying castle, Edie begins to unravel her mother's past, but there are other secrets hidden in the castle and Edie discovers far more than she expected. The truth of what happened in those “ distant hours” has waited a long time for someone to reveal it.

This is a nice read....not one that would be entertained by my husband, but it could be passed  to a girlfriend who wants an enthralling story with quite lively characters beset by love, circumstance and memories.. I enjoyed it  and will probably seek out other Kate Morton novels too.

 

Kate Morton - The Forgotten Garden

Reviewed by Barbara Simpson on 20/11/08
The Forgotten Garden is an absorbing and very satisfying story of three generations of women linked by a shared background. The book is set between Australia and Cornwall and begins with the discovery of a 4yr old girl sitting alone on a wharf in Brisbane in 1913 after the arrival of a ship from England. She refuses to speak and there is no clue to her identity in the small white suitcase that is her only possession. The kindly Docks Manager, tries to find anyone who knows her but is unsuccessful and at the end of the day takes her home to his wife. They have been unable to have children of their own and are delighted to take the child into their care.
The second part of the story involves that same girl, Nell, later in her life. She has grown up in a loving family, now with brothers, and has very few recollections of her early life, apart from a beautifully illustrated book of fairy stories written by The Authoress whom she knows is somehow bound up with her past. When she discovers that she was in fact a foundling, her shock is profound and in 1975, she resolves to find her real family and uncover the story of what happened to her all those years ago.
The third strand concerns Cassandra, Nell's granddaughter, who, on Nell's death in 2005, is amazed to be told that she has inherited a house in Cornwall. She had no knowledge of any connection with that part of the world and, intrigued, sets off to visit her inheritance.
Interwoven with Nell and Cassandra's stories is that of Eliza, the mysterious Authoress of Nell's faint memories. Her tale is quite tragic but she is a resourceful woman who overcomes the difficulties that face her and emerges as a strong and very likable personality.
Kate Morton (winner of Richard & Judy's Summer Read in 2007 with 'The House At Riverton') is a writer who skilfully combines characterisation and lyrical description in a most satisfying way and I can thoroughly recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys getting totally involved in a really good story. Published by Pan Books at £7.99 and worth every penny!

show 20th August 2009

They say you should never work with animals & children so I may live to regret this decision but without the aid of a safety net, today, I had on the show Ellie (5years) and Phoebe (4years) with their mum Gemma.
My other guests were Lydia Birch and Maggie Perkovich.
Books being reviewed were:
Gemma cunningham - Endless Night by Richard Layman
Lydia Birch - House at Riverton by Kate Morton
Maggie Perkovich - Tainted by Brooke Morgan
Ellie & Phoebe discussed their favourite books which were Dr Seuss Green Eggs and Ham, Cinderella & Billys birthday lollipop by Lennart Hellsing.

One reviewer of Kate Mortons book on 'Amazon' made me laugh:
Quote:'This book made me so angry. Please tell me how many English villages have "habberdashers" that sell dictaphones and are open on a SUNDAY!!!! I'd also like to know where a 1920s housemaid got hold of "tights"!? Not invented till the 1960s. There is no excuse for this sort of sloppy error, the author should do more research and sack her obviously uneducated editors for allowing these jarring mistakes to go unchallenged'.

Another reviewer who reviewed Brooke Morgans book on Amazon was also funny:
Quote:'My first impressions weren't of a charismatic yet sinister man, but rather a caricature of an uptight English twit. He sits next to Holly and immediately starts wooing her, at the same time having a go at a poor woman behind him whose young child is kicking the seat, an American Vicky Pollard who is shouting into her mobile phone, and then ranting about binge drinking amongst young people in Britain. It was more Norris Cole than sexy and sinister, and if I had been Holly, I'd have thought him an idiot... no matter how dashing. However, I needn't of worried, as this proved to be the one weak point in the book and after the disappointing and slightly ridiculous first chapter, I was hooked into a tense psychological thriller'.

Gemma & Lydia discussed the merits of the Twilight series as Gemma is also a 'Cullen' fan.

I also read out some of the bizarre accidents which had crocked up football players off the pitch (1993/4 season...Beasant showed uncustomary clumsy hands and dropped a full jar of salad cream and instinctively stuck a leg out to negate the error. The jar smashed on his foot severing a tendon in his big toe)

Rachel Hore - THE SILENT TIDE

reviewed on recorded show by Babs Simpson for 12th Sept 2013

 

I AM STILL READING THIS BUT WANTED TO TALK ABOUT IT BECAUSE IT IS VERY SPECIAL.  IT IS TWO STORIES IN ONE - FIRSTLY OF RICHARD BARBER WHO, IN THE EARLY 1950'S, LEAVES HOME TO GET AWAY FROM THE FATHER SHE CANNOT LOVE.  SHE MOVES TO STAY WITH AN AUNT IN LONDON AND GETS A JOB WITH A SMALL PUBLISHING HOUSE.  SHE LOVES HER WORK AND HAS A NATURAL TALENT FOR SPOTTING NEW WORK AND MAKING HELPFUL SUGGESTIONS TO AUTHORS FOR IMPROVEMENTS.

THE OTHER STORY CONCERNS EMILY GORDON AND IS SET IN THE PRESENT DAY.  EMILY IS ALSO IN PUBLISHING IN LONDON - NOW A VASTLY DIFFERENT BUSINESS FROM RACHELS TIME.  MOST OF THE SMALL PUBLISHING HOUSES HAVE BEEN CONSUMED BY THE CONGLOMERATES BUT EMILY TOO ENJOYS HER WORK AND IS GIVEN THE TASK OF HELPING A FREE-LANCE WRITER WITH HIS BIOGRAPHY OF HUGH MORTON WHOSE NOVEL, THE RISING TIDE, WAS AN ACCLAIMED BEST-SELLER IN THE 1950'S.  THAT TITLE IS A REFERENCE TO THE DREADFUL FLOODS IN EAST ANGLIA IN 1952 THAT COST SO MANY LIVES AND IS A MENACING PRESENCE THROUGHOUT THE NARRATIVE.

INEVITABLY THE TWO STORIES ARE INTER-TWINED AND FULL OF INTRIGUE.  HUGH MORTONS FIRST WIFE WAS ISOBEL BARBER BUT HIS SECOND WIFE, JACQUELINE, BARELY ACKNOWLEDGES HER EXISTENCE AND THERE ARE MANY TWISTS AND TURNS AS THE STORY PROGRESSES.

RACHEL HORE IS A BRILLIANT WRITER.  SHE CROSSES EFFORTLESSLY BETWEEN THE 1950'S AND THE PRESENT DAY AND THE READER IS NEVER CONFUSED.   THE SETTINGS AND PEOPLE ARE ALL EXACTLY RIGHT FOR THEIR TIME AND THE BOOK IS GLORIOUSLY ABSORBING AND BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN - TO QUOTE NOVELIST OF TODAY.  I AM ABSOLUTELY MESMERISED BY THIS STORY.  IF YOU HAVE DISCOVERED THE JOYS O KATE MORTONS BOOKS YOU WILL CERTAINLY LOVE RACHEL HORE - SHE IS A FINE NOVELIST.