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THE ESSEX SERPENT by Sarah Perry <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n This beautifully written historical fiction is set in 1893 in London and rural Essex. It was Waterstones Book of the Year 2016 and nominated for both The Women’s Prize and the Costa Book Award.<\/span><\/p>\n Cora is recently widowed from an unhappy and abusive marriage. Throughout her husband’s illness, she was supported by Doctor Luke Garrett, a pioneering surgeon and his wealthy friend, Doctor George Spencer, a physician.<\/span><\/p>\n Accompanied by her eleven year old autistic son Francis and their companion and friend Martha, Cora leaves London Society for a visit to Colchester. Whilst there she learns that after some 300 years, the mythical Essex Serpent is said to be roaming the marshes of the Blackwater Estuary once again and claiming human lives. As a keen amateur naturalist, she wonders if this could be some undiscovered species and decides to investigate. Her investigations lead her to Aldwinter, a fictional village situated on the Blackwater Estuary, where she is introduced to the Reverend William Ransome, the resident Vicar of Aldwinter, his frail wife Stella and their family.<\/span><\/p>\n This novel explores science vs faith and religion, social conscience, love and friendship and has received very positive public reviews. However the Page Turners were mostly of the opinion that there are many negatives which include the following:<\/span><\/p>\n There is too much going on but no depth to the various story-lines which are not memorable,<\/span><\/p>\n disjointed and at times, dreary and depressing. Even the titled story-line of the Essex Serpent fizzles out to nothing. Additionally, the majority of the characters, including Cora, are not very endearing.<\/span><\/p>\n On the positive side, the Page Turners concluded that the book is beautifully written and wonderfully descriptive. The author is clever and has done some very good background research, especially with regard to medical advancements during that era.<\/span><\/p>\n The scores ranged from 5 to 8 and produced a final average of 6.5.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" THE ESSEX SERPENT by Sarah Perry This beautifully written historical fiction is set in 1893 in London and rural Essex. It was Waterstones Book of the Year 2016 and nominated for both The Women’s Prize and the Costa Book Award. Cora is recently widowed from an unhappy and abusive marriage. Throughout her husband’s illness, she was supported by Doctor […]<\/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":[332],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s6cWjO-5121","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":15128,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=15128","url_meta":{"origin":5121,"position":0},"title":"Traditional \u2018Lucky Dip\u2019 At Christmas","author":"Alan Williams","date":"7th February 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"\u2018Lucky Dips\u2019 At Christmas It has become somewhat of a tradition for a \u2018lucky dip\u2019 at Christmas for the Page Turners group. Everybody wraps a book and it is pot luck what you pull out of the hat. At our January meeting, members share their surprise gift. This year was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Wenvoe Page Turners"","block_context":{"text":"Wenvoe Page Turners","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=41"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13530,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=13530","url_meta":{"origin":5121,"position":1},"title":"WENVOE BUTTERFLIES","author":"Alan Williams","date":"31st August 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Wenvoe Wildlife Group The weather has not been kind to our conservation work but thanks to some of our observant residents we continue to record species which have not previously been registered in the Parish. An example is the Mint Moth which is probably not uncommon but easily overlooked. This\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Wenvoe Wildlife Group"","block_context":{"text":"Wenvoe Wildlife Group","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=48"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Picture3.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4836,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=4836","url_meta":{"origin":5121,"position":2},"title":"Bus Trip – Our trip\u2026","author":"Alan Williams","date":"28th July 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Bus Trip \u2013 Our trip to London was a complete success. Positive feedback was received from all. Following suggestions, we shall be making a trip to Bath and the Christmas Market sometime in December. Book Sales \u2013 Many thanks to the Horse and Jockey for continuing to collect donations for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Wenvoe Community Hub"","block_context":{"text":"Wenvoe Community Hub","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=9"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12389,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=12389","url_meta":{"origin":5121,"position":3},"title":"The Welshman Behind The Gunpowder Plot","author":"Alan Williams","date":"2nd November 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"THE WELSHMAN BEHIND THE GUNPOWDER PLOT Guy Fawkes may be the most infamous figure in the Gunpowder Plot but he might not have been involved in the legendary conspiracy to blow up Parliament, if it had not been for a Welsh spy. Fearing the wrath of the authorities, Hugh Owen\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General Interest Articles"","block_context":{"text":"General Interest Articles","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=334"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12627,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=12627","url_meta":{"origin":5121,"position":4},"title":"The Heart is a Lonely Hunter","author":"Alan Williams","date":"9th December 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"OFF THE SHELF \"The Heart is a Lonely Hunter\" by Carson McCullers Carson McCullers\u2019 first novel is known as a modern-day classic. To an extent it mirrors her own background of growing up in a poor mill town in the Southern United States. The story tells of the lives of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Off The Shelf"","block_context":{"text":"Off The Shelf","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=347"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6683,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=6683","url_meta":{"origin":5121,"position":5},"title":"October Library Update","author":"Alan Williams","date":"28th October 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"October Library Update \u00a0 Meet the Author On Wednesday 16 October, Alistair Love gave us an interesting insight to the background of his new novel The Heath written under the pseudonym of A.J. Munro. Working as a news producer based in London, Alistair developed a love of Hampstead Heath in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Wenvoe Community Hub"","block_context":{"text":"Wenvoe Community Hub","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=9"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5121"}],"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=5121"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5457,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5121\/revisions\/5457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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