Roses Round the Door

by Christine Marion Fraser

Excellent Book

Genres: Scotland, Nonfiction, Autobiography

344 pages, Paperback

First published June 12, 1986

About the author

Christine Marion Fraser was one of Scotland's best-selling authors, outselling even Catherine Cookson. She published 22 books in 18 years and was the author of the much-loved Rhanna series. Her formative years were spent in the post-war Govan district of Glasgow and went on to become a beacon of Scottish publishing. Christine spent her later life in Argyll with her husband and family.

Reviews

[Chrissie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY adore this book. It’s even better than Christine Marion Fraser’s first book of her autobiographical trilogy! What she writes of mirrors my own life. If you are a person who loves living in the country, away from the hustle and bustle of city life, if dogs are of prime importance to you, if walking in nature, sucking up its ambiance, are what you do, you’re going to fall for this book too. If the materialism of modern society drives you up a tree, good! Stay there or escape to some undisturbed nook and read this book. You must though start with Blue Above the Chimneys.

In this, Roses Round the Door, the second of the author’s autobiographical trilogy, Christine falls in love and marries. After a difficult pregnancy involving a prolonged hospital stay, a daughter is born. Through the ordeal, we cry and laugh alongside her. The couple’s first real home is bought, a small cottage up in the Scottish Highlands. Pets soon join the family fold.

The book is bubbling over with humor, and yet both life and death are central components of Christine’s life story. As with the first book, the reality of hard times and real life are mirrored. Both the good and the bad as well as ‘the happy and the sad rub shoulders.

Please read my review of Blue Above the Chimneys:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
It’s silly to repeat what is written there.

I’ll bet my bottom dollar that as you get to know Christine, she will become a person you admire, respect and just plain like a whole lot.

Caroline Guthrie reads the RNIB recordings for all the books of the trilogy. I like this. She has a strong Glasgow accent. The Glasgow dialect is prominent too. Although this gave me some trouble at the start, I’m used to it now. I wouldn’t have it any other way. The narration is very good, so I’m giving it four stars. My one complaint might be that as Christine ages, Caroline’s voice sounds somewhat young and immature.

In this, the second of the trilogy, Christine is “catching up on the things that should have happened in her teen years but didn’t.” The book leaves you feeling happy, satisfied! Given how much I’ve liked this, I’ve immediately begun the trilogy’s final book. If you can get the entire trilogy in one volume, do!!!!

I’ll finish with a final quote from the book:
“Don’t let go of the goals in your life!”

********************

1.Blue Above the Chimneys 4 stars
2.Roses Round the Door 5 stars
3.Green Are My Mountains 3 stars

[Chamodi Waidyathilaka · Rating 2 out of 5]

A diary. More of a personal diary written in a autobiography manner. I found the story interesting and inspiring when it. Comes to how the author’s disability did not leading a normal life. But the way how it’s written makes the whole story boring and character development is slow. I felt the only thing the talk is ‘ME’ ‘ME’… i decide to read it because i found the second book of this series. It says there’s more nature and country side describing. Yet the only bit of interesting part i found was after her marriage when she started to live in some country side cottage. But that too i find it bit boring because of the way how it’s written well it should be a diary instead a autobiography..

[Carolyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

A thoughtful and entertaining autobiography of a disabled young woman who is not inclined to be held back by her wheelchair. She recounts her life from its beginning in Govan, meeting the love of her life, moving to a series of homes, acquiring Samoyeds and a daughter. This is a story of someone determined to make her way and suddenly realising she could write - novels and then her life story.

[s.l.galloway · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tremendously good read

I laughed and cried all the way through this book, I’ve enjoyed it so much I’m now going to read the Rhanna books. What prompted me to read Roses Round The Door was a memory that somewhere in our past in Scotland my dad had worked with Ken and both him, my mum and my sister had been fans of Christine’s work.

[marjorie palmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A comfortable warming book.

I enjoyed this book immensely it was so calming and down to earth. I really feel that I have been to all the places described. Thank you for such a calming signing book!

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would give this a 4 and a half. I picked it up and barely started. Then came back to it much later...then couldn't put it down. Fraser's life was so interesting. She was able to take the everyday and make it compelling. I have not read the first book about her life, but enjoyed this thoroughly anyway. It begins with her working in a factory in Glasgow and meeting her future husband. She had suffered an illness in her childhood in the Glasgow slums, which put her in a wheelchair. That never seemed to slow her down. Living her life in a much more restrictive era than a wheelchair-bound person would now, she was still able to live life to the full. I so enjoyed reading her courtship and marriage and life in the little cottage in the highlands; about her incredibly wonderful Samoyed dog, the birth of her child, the eventual writing career written of at the end of the book. I am so glad that I discovered non-fiction a few years ago. After a lifetime of reading mostly fiction, what a wonderful wealth of non-fiction writing there is out there to be enjoyed as well!

[Teresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second book in the autobiographical series by Chris Fraser.

[Wendy Paulizky]

Good follow up of the 1st book. Now starting the 3rd of the series Green are my mountains