A “Moving” end to our Binge Read Club
The final Clap for Carers last week signalled the end of our wonderful #BingeReadBookClub as those of us in our street who have been furloughed return to work and the elders and youngers in the group, with government restrictions lifted, begin to return to a life outside our Crouch End cove!
Author Melanie Blake
I can’t tell you how much we’ve enjoyed sharing our club with My Weekly readers and although for now we are disbanding our “binge reading” we have all vowed to keep in touch more now we’ve grown so close during what has been the strangest and yet also the most rewarding time ever.
I have loved getting to know my neighbours and I know we’ll all keep up the closeness that being “together but apart” under #LockdownUK has brought us.
Our final book was chosen by lovely Vicky Ogden who lives directly opposite me. We’ve enjoyed many a Buck’s Fizz over the garden gate (at 2 metres apart) during this process and I know we shall remain drinking and reading buddies for life!
Secrets and betrayals in this week’s read…
Vicky chose Moving by Jenny Eclair which focuses on the character Edwina Spinner, once a successful artist and illustrator who now lives alone in the large family house which she is selling.
Eclair’s writing takes us into many perspectives of the emotions we face during large life changes or shifts in age and Moving is a compelling story of a family ripped apart by secrets, betrayals and manipulation.
10 out of 10
I don’t want to give too much away as this is one book we all felt sure that every reader would love. As a group we all gave it 10/10. Vicky described Moving as “beautifully written with acute observation of family life which allows the reader to love, loathe and leap with every unexpected entanglement that these family characters weave themselves into. I could not put it down and the Spinner family intrigue has stayed with me and I’m now going to order more of Jenny Eclair’s books.”
High praise indeed!
Interestingly enough I interviewed Jenny in my journalist days when she had her first book, Camberwell Beauty, released, which I also loved. I hadn’t read another of her’s until Moving, but now, like Vicky, I’ll be ordering the rest.
I hope you’ve enjoyed being part of our little lockdown world as much as we’ve bizarrely enjoyed experiencing it.
And I’d like to thank all of you who have bought and sent me lovely messages about my own book The Thunder Girls, it means so much to hear that people love something you’ve worked so hard to make as special as possible for them to enjoy!
I’ll be taking a break now whilst I edit my new book, Ruthless Women, which will be released in hardback in February 2021. I cannot wait to see what you all think of that, it’s set on a soap opera which is about to be axed due to poor ratings which causes the cast and crew to pick sides in a battle of the sexes where only the most Ruthless Women will survive!
In the meanwhile you can find me on Twitter or Instagram.
Over and out for now and keep reading!
Lots of love, Melanie Blake
Melanie Blake is the author of The Thunder Girls published by Pan Macmillan, available on Amazon. Read our fiction ed’s review of Melanie’s book here…
Allison Hay
I joined the "My Weekly" team thirteen years ago and, more recently, "The People's Friend". I love the variety of topics we cover both online and in the magazines. I manage the digital content for the brands, sharing features and information on the website, social media and in our digital newsletters.
