Joanna Trollope

I have not read any of Joanna's novels before, and although it was a pleasant enough read, I did not engage with her characters very deeply, and kept thinking if you marry a soldier, you can hardly expect to play happy families, nor to get much support in the home or keep your career going. I felt very sorry for the elder daughter, poor Isobel, packed off out of the way to boarding school, but not much sympathy for Dan, Alexa, or Gus. I probably stuck with it because I had watched Gareth Malone form a MIlitary Wives choir and because I know both the Wimbledon and Headley Court areas. ..read more

Another of Joanna Trollope's great books, based on a group of women bought together by a neigbough who invites them to come and spend an evening with her for company on a Friday Night.  So starts their nights of having, friendship, a few drinks and their youngsters, joining in on some of the sessions.

This is just the most beautiful story I have read in the last few months and did not expect the story to be about the subject matter that it covers. It is poignantly written, and about a family that will never forget the last few hours of Christmas.

The words used to describe what is happening in this families' life are so beautifully written and so sympathetically put across.  I love the way that Jacquelyn Mitchard has put this story together, and her understanding of the feelings and hopes of both the mother and father and children through this Christmas time.