{"id":2922,"date":"2017-03-31T10:32:06","date_gmt":"2017-03-31T09:32:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=2922"},"modified":"2017-04-18T23:30:11","modified_gmt":"2017-04-18T22:30:11","slug":"march-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=2922","title":{"rendered":"March Book"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\"\"  \n<\/p>\n

\n\t \n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/em>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tby Rachel Joyce<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\"\"\n<\/p>\n

\n\tR<\/span><\/span>achel Joyce first introduces Queenie Hennessy in her debut novel, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, when Queenie writes to her old friend Harold, with whom she has had no contact<\/span><\/span><\/span> for 20 years, telling him that she is dying of cancer. Harold replies that he is coming to see her and embarks upon a 600 mile journey on foot.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tF<\/span><\/span>ollowing the success of that novel, Rachel Joyce had the brilliant concept that Queenie’s character and story had not been fully portrayed and thus, the book she describes as a companion novel was written.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tQ<\/span><\/span>ueenie<\/span><\/span> tells her story of life and death as she awaits Harold’s arrival, whilst being cared for in a nursing home in Berwick upon Tweed run by nuns. She recounts her life with portraits of <\/span><\/span><\/span>her childhood and her days as a Classics Scholar in University. When taking a new job she meets Harold, a married man with whom she secretly falls in love. Queenie’s sudden departure following the tragic death of Harold’s son David, for which she partly blames herself, results in her journey to Berwick upon Tweed, where she lives for the next 20 years creating her Sea Garden.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tB<\/span><\/span>etween these recollections of previous years, life in the hospice is brilliantly portrayed. We are enthralled by the characters of Queenie’s fellow patients and the nuns caring for them, including imaginary characters who were a manifestation of the morphine induced haze in which Queenie was living her final days.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tT<\/span><\/span>he Page Turners all agreed that the book was well written and extremely descriptive although some enjoyed it more than others. Following what was generally considered a slow start, the majority found that we warmed to the story, which was sad, funny and thought provoking. The scores ranged from 6 to 8.5 and averaged out to a score of 7.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t \n<\/p>\n

\n\t\"\"\n<\/p>\n

\n\t \n<\/p>\n

\n\t \n<\/p>\n

\n
\n

\n\t <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy by Rachel Joyce Rachel Joyce first introduces Queenie Hennessy in her debut novel, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, when Queenie writes to her old friend Harold, with whom she has had no contact for 20 years, telling him that she is dying of cancer. Harold replies that he is coming […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6cWjO-L8","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":16088,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=16088","url_meta":{"origin":2922,"position":0},"title":"“Perfect” by Rachel Joyce","author":"Alan Williams","date":"1st October 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 \"Perfect\" by Rachel Joyce Rachel Joyce wrote the bestselling novel of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, so the Page Turners had high expectations for another of her novels, \"Perfect\". Perfect tells the story of two 11-year-old boys who plot to save their mother after she has a car\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "New Items for October 2025"","block_context":{"text":"New Items for October 2025","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=426"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9162,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=9162","url_meta":{"origin":2922,"position":1},"title":"Wedding Congratulations","author":"Alan Williams","date":"1st March 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Congratulations Mum & Dad (Eric & Joyce White of Gwenfo Drive) on your Diamond Wedding Anniversary on March 1st 2021 Best Wishes and love from Penny, Susan, Adrian and all the Family xxx \u00a0 \u00a0","rel":"","context":"In "Congratulations"","block_context":{"text":"Congratulations","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=36"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Picture1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10761,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=10761","url_meta":{"origin":2922,"position":2},"title":"Tucker\u2019s Christmas Reindeer Event","author":"Alan Williams","date":"13th December 2021","format":false,"excerpt":". TUCKER\u2019S CHRISTMAS REINDEER EVENT The local community was treated to a really lovely day on Saturday 20 November when Glenys and Mike invited everyone to spend time with friends and neighbours at their Christmas Reindeer event. Preparations had been underway for many months and a group of volunteers worked\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General Interest Articles"","block_context":{"text":"General Interest Articles","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=334"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Picture8w.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1330,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=1330","url_meta":{"origin":2922,"position":3},"title":"The End of the line","author":"Alan Williams","date":"11th October 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Unfortunately this month saw the last of the Wenvoe whist drives. Numbers have been falling steadily over the last few years and there has been a lack of volunteers to help running it. It is sad to see it go, but it has been serving an ever smaller number of\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6761,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=6761","url_meta":{"origin":2922,"position":4},"title":"Christmas Reindeer Cafe","author":"Alan Williams","date":"10th December 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"CHRISTMAS REINDEER CAFE The local community was treated to a really lovely afternoon on Saturday 23 November when Glenys and Mike invited everyone to spend time with friends and neighbours at the Christmas Reindeer Caf\u00e9. Randolph\u2019s extended family were eagerly awaiting the arrival of people from the village who had\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General Interest Articles"","block_context":{"text":"General Interest Articles","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=334"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Picture4.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":618,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=618","url_meta":{"origin":2922,"position":5},"title":"August news","author":"Alan Williams","date":"12th August 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Although we had a rather small gathering, we still spent a very enjoyable evening as usual. Winners were Joyce and Sheila. I want to take this opportunity to question the viability of the group as it is now, with only 2 tables on several occasions. Furthermore, I shall find it\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2922"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2922"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3137,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2922\/revisions\/3137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}