{"id":7499,"date":"2020-05-01T15:10:54","date_gmt":"2020-05-01T14:10:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=7499"},"modified":"2020-05-03T14:25:13","modified_gmt":"2020-05-03T13:25:13","slug":"birdcage-walk-by-helen-dunmore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=7499","title":{"rendered":"“Birdcage Walk” by Helen Dunmore"},"content":{"rendered":"

Birdcage Walk by Helen Dunmore<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Not to be beaten by the lockdown we held our meeting via Zoom. This month\u2019s book Birdcage Walk by Helen Dunmore was set in Bristol during the time of the French Revolution. Lizzie Fawkes was brought up by her idealistic widowed mother with whom she is very close. Her mother has remarried but is in poor health. Lizzie is recently married to widower John Diner Tredevant whose first wife is understood to have died in Paris. Diner is an entrepreneur who has overstretched himself in building a grand crescent in Clifton. In different times he would have sold the grand houses, but the war has made potential buyers reluctant to invest. After his workmen walk out, he has to abandon his venture. Diner is a complex character, demanding and emotionally needy. The novel becomes very<\/p>\n

dark following the death of Lizzie\u2019s mother in childbirth. Diner\u2019s financial problems begin to affect his personality and Lizzie has suspicions regarding the death of his first wife. This was a novel about mortality, and it was Helen Dunmore\u2019s last novel, written during her terminal illness in 2017 when she died aged 64. We thought the relationship between mother and daughter was wonderfully described and the love between them was palpable. Her description of the walks on Clifton downs made us feel that we were walking beside her on her journeys. Overall, we gave the book a score of 7\/10<\/p>\n

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

Birdcage Walk by Helen Dunmore   Not to be beaten by the lockdown we held our meeting via Zoom. This month\u2019s book Birdcage Walk by Helen Dunmore was set in Bristol during the time of the French Revolution. Lizzie Fawkes was brought up by her idealistic widowed mother with whom she is very close. Her mother has remarried but is […]<\/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":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[347,9],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6cWjO-1WX","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13975,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=13975","url_meta":{"origin":7499,"position":0},"title":"“A Spell of Winter” by Helen Dunmore","author":"Alan Williams","date":"13th February 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"OFF THE SHELF \"A Spell of Winter\" by Helen Dunmore This is an unsettling story of love and betrayal, which is dark and claustrophobic in parts, but a story we all wanted to finish. It is set in turn-of-the-century England, with a Gothic literary genre. Catherine and Rob Allen are\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":3525,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=3525","url_meta":{"origin":7499,"position":1},"title":"June Books Review","author":"Alan Williams","date":"28th July 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 \u00a0 We had no set book this month, so we all chose a good read, some very successfully, others not quite so. The one 10\/10 was by Rohinton Mistry \u201cA Fine Balance\u201d \u2013 an exceptional novel about India during The Emergency. (We as a group had read this author\u2019s\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":9512,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=9512","url_meta":{"origin":7499,"position":2},"title":"Parkinson\u2019s Disease Appeal","author":"Alan Williams","date":"30th March 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"PARKINSON\u2019S DISEASE APPEAL Many Wenvoe residents will remember Helen and David Blessley and their contributions to village life. They moved to live in Penarth but still maintain village connections. Helen, being a superb cook, wrote a column called \u2018Helen\u2019s Kitchen' for the magazine for over 15 years. 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A forest walk of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Walking Group"","block_context":{"text":"Walking Group","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=5"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13008,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=13008","url_meta":{"origin":7499,"position":4},"title":"Two New Walkers","author":"Alan Williams","date":"14th March 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"LIVING WITH CANCERSTROLLERS The Living with Cancer Strollers welcomed two new walkers at Cosmeston. The walk was a real adventure (or misadventure!) as the strollers navigated their way through the muddy route planned for them! 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The answer is straightforward: the chat and the coffee (other beverages are available!), are an important and integral part of any Cosmeston stroll. 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