A March Best Book in Red

‘NOTE PERFECT’ East Riding Magazine
‘AN EXTRAORDINARY NEW WRITER‘ Nina Stibbe

I used to believe the world had been created for me; every stone and grain of sand. As I grew older, I began to think of myself as something tacked on to the edge.

1939, London: From McPhail’s Passage to Kensington’s Grand Palace Hotel, Rose Dunbar is evacuated from her humble home on the Rock of Gibraltar and dropped into a chaotic city of falling bombs, perplexing class rules and bad weather. Despite being ‘flagrantly foreign’ to the locals, she becomes an efficient go-between for the upper-class ladies helping out with the war effort and her own tribe of noisy displaced families.

It is only when she is shifted to the countryside to become secretary to the plain-speaking and sightless Major Inchbold that Rose’s dizzying journey to womanhood will become more surreal than ever, as she drinks tea at the vicarage and stands up for the lower orders. But Rose’s greatest dilemma is yet to come, as she must decide where her home – and her heart – really lies.

In Anne Youngson’s wry and sublimely understated prose, this unique and beautiful story of love, class and belonging is also a profound and intimate meditation on what it takes to find our place in the world.

*******************************
Praise for ANNE YOUNGSON:

‘Tender, wise and moving, Meet Me at the Museum is a novel to cherish.’ JOHN BOYNE
‘Insightful, emotionally acute and absorbing’ DAILY EXPRESS
‘Beautiful and affecting’ NINA STIBBE

Readers love Anne Youngson’s novels:
‘I was utterly gripped and felt bereft when I’d finished it’ *****
‘I could not put this book down. An inspired approach to writing about life and love’ *****
‘One of my top ten best reads of the year’*****

Six short stories full of colourful suspects and complicated motives by the winner of the Paul Torday Memorial prize for debut authors over sixty – perfect for fans of grisly mysteries set in the English countryside

The village cleaning lady who holds everyone’s house-keys opens a boot to find some unexpected baggage; a vengeful dinner party host serves more than just a roast to her six guests; hairdresser chat is not just idle gossip as an old man with a history gets a trim; driven to distraction by his new young wife, a man resorts to two grisly acts, in a gripping re-imagining of a famous Irish ballad.

Ripping away the polite façade of small communities, these stories reveal the roiling emotions and frustration that can lead seemingly ordinary people to do bad things. Rich in compassion, pathos and humour, Anne Youngson offers us her dark take on human foibles, pettiness and rivalry in this sparkling, unputdownable collection.

A March Best Book in Red

‘NOTE PERFECT’ East Riding Magazine
‘AN EXTRAORDINARY NEW WRITER‘ Nina Stibbe

I used to believe the world had been created for me; every stone and grain of sand. As I grew older, I began to think of myself as something tacked on to the edge.

1939, London: From McPhail’s Passage to Kensington’s Grand Palace Hotel, Rose Dunbar is evacuated from her humble home on the Rock of Gibraltar and dropped into a chaotic city of falling bombs, perplexing class rules and bad weather. Despite being ‘flagrantly foreign’ to the locals, she becomes an efficient go-between for the upper-class ladies helping out with the war effort and her own tribe of noisy displaced families.

It is only when she is shifted to the countryside to become secretary to the plain-speaking and sightless Major Inchbold that Rose’s dizzying journey to womanhood will become more surreal than ever, as she drinks tea at the vicarage and stands up for the lower orders. But Rose’s greatest dilemma is yet to come, as she must decide where her home – and her heart – really lies.

In Anne Youngson’s wry and sublimely understated prose, this unique and beautiful story of love, class and belonging is also a profound and intimate meditation on what it takes to find our place in the world.

*******************************
Praise for ANNE YOUNGSON:

‘Tender, wise and moving, Meet Me at the Museum is a novel to cherish.’ JOHN BOYNE
‘Insightful, emotionally acute and absorbing’ DAILY EXPRESS
‘Beautiful and affecting’ NINA STIBBE

Readers love Anne Youngson’s novels:
‘I was utterly gripped and felt bereft when I’d finished it’ *****
‘I could not put this book down. An inspired approach to writing about life and love’ *****
‘One of my top ten best reads of the year’*****

Ripping away the polite façade of small communities, these stories of love, lies and revenge reveal the roiling emotions and frustration that can lead seemingly good people to do bad things. Rich in compassion, pathos and humour, Anne Youngson offers us her dark take on human foibles, pettiness and rivalry in this sparkling, unputdownable collection.

‘Life-affirming and funny’ GOOD HOUSEKEEPING
‘Anne Youngson’s witty and elegant novel is a celebration of friendship and a timely reminder that it is never too late to take on a life-changing new challenge’ DAILY MAIL

Meet Eve, who has departed from her thirty-year career to become a Free Spirit; Sally, who has waved goodbye to her indifferent husband and two grown-up children; and Anastasia, a defiantly independent narrowboat-dweller, suddenly vulnerable as she awaits a life-saving operation.

Inexperienced and ill-equipped, Sally and Eve embark upon a journey through the canals of England, guided by the remote and unsympathetic Anastasia. As they glide gently – and not so gently – through the countryside, the eccentricities and challenges of canalboat life draw them inexorably together, and a tender and unforgettable story unfolds.

Disarmingly truthful and narrated with a rare wit, THREE WOMEN AND A BOAT is a journey over the glorious waterways of England and into the unfathomable depths of the human heart by an inspirational new talent now in her seventies.

**********
What customers are saying:

‘Moving, tender and just a balm for the soul’ *****
‘Perfect for those in need of an uplifting read’ ****
‘A warm and enjoyable read’ *****

Uplifting, joyous, hopeful – a novel about late love and second chances, shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award and winner of the Paul Torday Memorial Prize

‘A moving tribute to friendship and love, to the courage of the ordinary, and to starting again’ RACHEL JOYCE, author of Miss Benson’s Beetle
‘Full of grace and humanity’ Sunday Times
________________________

This story begins with a letter
From a housewife
to the gentle curator
Of an extraordinary museum
Where lies peacefully
An ancient exhibit
That holds the key
To Everything
We are.

Meet Me at the Museum tells of a connection made across oceans and against all the odds. Through intimate stories of joy, despair, and discovery, two people are drawn inexorably towards each other, until a shattering revelation pushes their friendship to the very edge.

This deeply affecting debut novel by seventy-three year-old Anne Youngson won the Paul Torday Memorial Prize and was dramatized on BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour

*******************************
‘Tender, wise and moving, Meet Me at the Museum is a novel to cherish.’ JOHN BOYNE

‘Insightful, emotionally acute and absorbing’ DAILY EXPRESS

‘Beautiful and affecting’ NINA STIBBE

What readers are saying:
‘I loved this book. It was so different from anything else I have read’*****
‘I just loved this book and read it in one sitting. There were times when I felt like underlining the sentences that resonated with me’*****
‘I read this book one letter at a time, just to let the contents sink in. Tears came to my eyes’*****