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Een perfecte glimlach
Fotomodel en schrijfster Alison Bliss loopt de zee in. Na haar dood wordt zij een nog groter icoon dan toen ze nog leefde. Zes jaar later ontmoet haar man Harry de negentienjarige Helen, met wie hij een intense relatie begint. Harry wordt aangetrokken door haar ongekende gelijkenis met Arabella, zijn grootvaders tweede vrouw, wier levensverhaal de inspiratiebron was voor Alisons laatste boek. Wanneer Harry met Helen teruggaat naar de plek waar Alison is gestorven, komt een legendarisch verhaal aan het licht, dat wellicht de verklaring voor Alisons zelfmoord in zich draagt.
489 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
17 people are currently reading
89 people want to read
About the author
Jacqui Lofthouse
9 books35 followersJacqui Lofthouse is the author of four novels: 'The Temple of Hymen' (Penguin 1995), 'Bluethroat Morning' (Bloomsbury, 2000 and Blackbird 2018), 'Een Stille Verdwijning' (De Bezige Bij 2005) and 'The Modigliani Girl' (Blackbird Digital Books 2015). Her novels have sold over 100,000 copies in the UK, the USA and Europe and have been widely reviewed.
Jacqui began her career as an actor touring India as Sheila in J.B. Priestley's 'An Inspector Calls'. She went on to study Drama and English at the University of Bristol and subsequently worked in radio production and media training. In 1992 she studied for her MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia under Sir Malcolm Bradbury and Rose Tremain.
Jacqui has taught creative writing in a broad variety of settings including from City University to Feltham Young Offenders Institution. She has also taught English and Drama in London secondary schools.
In 2005, Jacqui founded The Writing Coach, a coaching and mentoring organisation for writers (www.thewritingcoach.co.uk). She is currently working on her first YA novel and returning to actor training at Identity School of Acting.
Jacqui began her career as an actor touring India as Sheila in J.B. Priestley's 'An Inspector Calls'. She went on to study Drama and English at the University of Bristol and subsequently worked in radio production and media training. In 1992 she studied for her MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia under Sir Malcolm Bradbury and Rose Tremain.
Jacqui has taught creative writing in a broad variety of settings including from City University to Feltham Young Offenders Institution. She has also taught English and Drama in London secondary schools.
In 2005, Jacqui founded The Writing Coach, a coaching and mentoring organisation for writers (www.thewritingcoach.co.uk). She is currently working on her first YA novel and returning to actor training at Identity School of Acting.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
May 16, 2018
Intense, somber, and contemplative!
Bluethroat Morning is a hauntingly perceptive novel that takes us into the life of Harry Bliss, a middle-aged man struggling to come to grips with the incredible grief, guilt, and emptiness he still feels over the loss of his wife to suicide.
The prose is poetic and sophisticated. The imagery is vivid. The characters are complex, self-indulgent, and tortured by the past. And the well-crafted plot written in a reflective past/present style does a remarkable job of unraveling all the secrets, mysteries, motivations, actions, personalities, and relationships within it.
Bluethroat Morning is ultimately a novel about marriage, life, loss, friendship, ambition, despair, solitude, secrets, manipulation, desire, acceptance, and forgiveness. And it becomes abundantly clear from the outset that Lofthouse is an exquisite literary writer with an uncanny ability to lay bare humanities weaknesses and emotional fragility and remind us that everyone that enters our lives, no matter the length of time, shapes, defines and influences us.
Thank you to Blackbird Digital Books for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.
All my reviews can be found on my blog at https://whatsbetterthanbooks.com
Bluethroat Morning is a hauntingly perceptive novel that takes us into the life of Harry Bliss, a middle-aged man struggling to come to grips with the incredible grief, guilt, and emptiness he still feels over the loss of his wife to suicide.
The prose is poetic and sophisticated. The imagery is vivid. The characters are complex, self-indulgent, and tortured by the past. And the well-crafted plot written in a reflective past/present style does a remarkable job of unraveling all the secrets, mysteries, motivations, actions, personalities, and relationships within it.
Bluethroat Morning is ultimately a novel about marriage, life, loss, friendship, ambition, despair, solitude, secrets, manipulation, desire, acceptance, and forgiveness. And it becomes abundantly clear from the outset that Lofthouse is an exquisite literary writer with an uncanny ability to lay bare humanities weaknesses and emotional fragility and remind us that everyone that enters our lives, no matter the length of time, shapes, defines and influences us.
Thank you to Blackbird Digital Books for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.
All my reviews can be found on my blog at https://whatsbetterthanbooks.com
September 9, 2019
This book was provided to me from NetGalley, Blackbird Publishing and Jacqui Lofthouse in exchange for my honest opinion. To them, I send my deepest gratitude.
Bluethroat Morning by Jacqui Lofthouse was beautifully written with intricate plot and sub-plots. It's a rather long book, but I didn't mind this and never lost interest once.
Harry Bliss is a retiring school teacher who was married to a former super-model, Alison Oakley Bliss who turned best-selling author. Her book was very well received and she had many fans. Inexplicably, six years prior to the start of a new novel, Alison had taken a writing holiday in a small town called Glaven. There she commits suicide by walking into the sea, naked.
The Glaven River is in the eastern English county of Norfolk, is 10½ miles long and flows through picturesque North Norfolk countryside to the North Sea. Today, it is a popular tourist destination. Alison rents a run-down cottage there to finish her second book without distractions.
Harry is absolutely devastated by his wife's unexpected suicide. He is determined to find out what transpired the last two weeks of Alison's life. Harry is also going through a mid-life crisis. He has been somewhat of a recluse in the years since Alison's death and thinks its time to come out of the shell.
In comes Helen. Oh, lovely, 19-year-old Helen. The daughter of Harry's closest friend at school where he teaches. Helen bears a strong resemblance to Arabella, who was his great-grandfather's wife. Arabella also committed suicide by walking naked into the water and drowning for unknown reasons just as Alison did. Harry and Helen start a torrid, although inappropriate, affair and she travels with him to Glaven to try to find answers. Helen is also a huge fan of Alison, both through her modeling career and her author status.
What transpires after that, I will withhold. This book is expertly written and intricate in detail, both of the characters and the surrounding area. My hat is off to Jacqui Lofthouse. She weaves a web of secrets and revelations that are shown to the reader slowly and deliciously.
It is an excellent book. I enjoyed it very much.
You can see my other reviews at http://travelreadlove.blog. Or follow me on Twitter at @simplypeachie48
Bluethroat Morning by Jacqui Lofthouse was beautifully written with intricate plot and sub-plots. It's a rather long book, but I didn't mind this and never lost interest once.
Harry Bliss is a retiring school teacher who was married to a former super-model, Alison Oakley Bliss who turned best-selling author. Her book was very well received and she had many fans. Inexplicably, six years prior to the start of a new novel, Alison had taken a writing holiday in a small town called Glaven. There she commits suicide by walking into the sea, naked.
The Glaven River is in the eastern English county of Norfolk, is 10½ miles long and flows through picturesque North Norfolk countryside to the North Sea. Today, it is a popular tourist destination. Alison rents a run-down cottage there to finish her second book without distractions.
Harry is absolutely devastated by his wife's unexpected suicide. He is determined to find out what transpired the last two weeks of Alison's life. Harry is also going through a mid-life crisis. He has been somewhat of a recluse in the years since Alison's death and thinks its time to come out of the shell.
In comes Helen. Oh, lovely, 19-year-old Helen. The daughter of Harry's closest friend at school where he teaches. Helen bears a strong resemblance to Arabella, who was his great-grandfather's wife. Arabella also committed suicide by walking naked into the water and drowning for unknown reasons just as Alison did. Harry and Helen start a torrid, although inappropriate, affair and she travels with him to Glaven to try to find answers. Helen is also a huge fan of Alison, both through her modeling career and her author status.
What transpires after that, I will withhold. This book is expertly written and intricate in detail, both of the characters and the surrounding area. My hat is off to Jacqui Lofthouse. She weaves a web of secrets and revelations that are shown to the reader slowly and deliciously.
It is an excellent book. I enjoyed it very much.
You can see my other reviews at http://travelreadlove.blog. Or follow me on Twitter at @simplypeachie48
November 12, 2020
“A bluethroat morning. Before first light and the morning still: a velvet darkness.”
Seldom have I read such a novel. It is touted as a literary thriller, yet readers who are expecting overt thrills will be disappointed. The thrills contained within the pages of “Bluethroat morning” are elusive, subtle, and transitory.
On the surface, it is the story of Harold Bliss. A normal man, a teacher, who marries a modern legend who is twenty years younger than he. But what are ‘legends’ but skin and bone, emotions, frailties, and everything else that makes us human? When people are elevated to legend status, they are perceived as more than human. They are somehow elevated. This elevation does no one any favours. Least of all the person being elevated. In this case, Alison Oakley, a beautiful supermodel, is ridden with insecurities. Hounded by paparazzi (and one journalist in particular), she cannot escape the bubble of public acclaim. The masses think they somehow own her, and that they are entitled to her every move and thought. When she meets and marries Harry Bliss, she thinks that that invasive part of her life is over, but the public are slow to forget…
Alison Bliss is a woman of mercurial moods. I wondered while reading this story if perhaps she was almost bi-polar. She was ‘up’ and then sank into deep depressions. Some might attribute her moods to an artistic temperament. Whatever the reason, she must have been a challenge to live with. A renown supermodel, she strives for perfection and in so doing becomes anorexic. After marrying Harry she writes a novel which was somewhat autobiographical and garnered much acclaim. There is even a movie in the works based upon it. This does little to appease Alison’s lack of self regard. After that first novel she was adrift, suffering from ‘writer’s block’, she was constantly on the lookout for something to write about. Then she discovers an old family photograph of Harry’s great-grandfather Charles, Arabella, his second wife, and his young son, George She feels an instant connection – a buzz – and she knows she has embarked on her second novel.
“I wasn’t sure that I wanted her to write about my ancestors. I wasn’t sure that they were safe with her.”
She travels to the north Norfolk coast, to the village where Harry’s forebears lived, and rents Hope Cottage, where they once lived. She wants to immerse herself in the feel of the place. What better place to do her research and her writing? Then, just two weeks later, she walks into the sea and commits suicide.
“She will never write bad books. She will never grow old. Alison will always be young and vibrant, always the tortured soul.”
“When Alison took her life, she permanently altered mine.”
The whole story of “Bluethroat morning” is 58 year old Harry Bliss’s trying to come to terms with his wife’s suicide. Six years later, and he is no farther forward. His grief is still raw. He has been vilified by the press. They say he drove her to it. Their darling. They accuse him of burning the manuscript for her newest book which was found in the grate at Hope Cottage.
Then, a week before he is due to embark on an early retirement, he is invited to his best friend’s house for dinner. This will prove a life-changing event, for it is there that he meets his friend’s nineteen-year-old daughter, Helen. She strongly resembles the woman in the photograph that his wife had based her book upon. There is an instant attraction. Despite the almost forty year age difference, they fall in love. Helen has an obsession with his late wife. She has a ‘girl-crush’ on this fabled woman who was both brilliant and beautiful. Helen accompanies Harry to Norfolk as he tries to come to terms with Alison’s decision to end her life.
In an attempt to understand Alison’s suicide, Harry abandons his job, and his reputation – with the added bonus of losing both his best friend, and his self-respect.
In Norfolk, they meet Ern Higham, a man in his late nineties, who lives alone in a cottage on the marsh. Alison had befriended this old man, and he shared his memories and secrets with her. He gives Harry a notebook that Alison had left with him… Ern seems to have had an intimate connection with the long dead Arabella.
It seems that there were many similarities between Alison’s life and the life of Arabella, the woman in the old photograph.
Is history doomed to repeating itself? How much grief can a person stand, and remain sane?
Bluethroat Morning is ultimately a novel about human frailty, loss, regret, obsession, and the infinite varieties of love. It is also about the corrosive nature of celebrity and the parasitic intrusiveness of paparazzi. Most of all, it is a book about children who lose their mothers prematurely, and how this loss, and other childhood events, shape their future lives.
This novel created a strange feeling in me while I read it. It was almost as though it was ephemeral, with a dream-like, elusive quality. The writing was nothing short of beautiful with an almost poetic feel. The author’s eloquence in describing the awesomely eerie Norfolk landscape was a treat to read. The pace was very slow, and the book was quite long, so I can imagine it would not appeal to everyone. Those who do take undertake the read will be rewarded with a sensual, hauntingly poignant, and memorable story.
Seldom have I read such a novel. It is touted as a literary thriller, yet readers who are expecting overt thrills will be disappointed. The thrills contained within the pages of “Bluethroat morning” are elusive, subtle, and transitory.
On the surface, it is the story of Harold Bliss. A normal man, a teacher, who marries a modern legend who is twenty years younger than he. But what are ‘legends’ but skin and bone, emotions, frailties, and everything else that makes us human? When people are elevated to legend status, they are perceived as more than human. They are somehow elevated. This elevation does no one any favours. Least of all the person being elevated. In this case, Alison Oakley, a beautiful supermodel, is ridden with insecurities. Hounded by paparazzi (and one journalist in particular), she cannot escape the bubble of public acclaim. The masses think they somehow own her, and that they are entitled to her every move and thought. When she meets and marries Harry Bliss, she thinks that that invasive part of her life is over, but the public are slow to forget…
Alison Bliss is a woman of mercurial moods. I wondered while reading this story if perhaps she was almost bi-polar. She was ‘up’ and then sank into deep depressions. Some might attribute her moods to an artistic temperament. Whatever the reason, she must have been a challenge to live with. A renown supermodel, she strives for perfection and in so doing becomes anorexic. After marrying Harry she writes a novel which was somewhat autobiographical and garnered much acclaim. There is even a movie in the works based upon it. This does little to appease Alison’s lack of self regard. After that first novel she was adrift, suffering from ‘writer’s block’, she was constantly on the lookout for something to write about. Then she discovers an old family photograph of Harry’s great-grandfather Charles, Arabella, his second wife, and his young son, George She feels an instant connection – a buzz – and she knows she has embarked on her second novel.
“I wasn’t sure that I wanted her to write about my ancestors. I wasn’t sure that they were safe with her.”
She travels to the north Norfolk coast, to the village where Harry’s forebears lived, and rents Hope Cottage, where they once lived. She wants to immerse herself in the feel of the place. What better place to do her research and her writing? Then, just two weeks later, she walks into the sea and commits suicide.
“She will never write bad books. She will never grow old. Alison will always be young and vibrant, always the tortured soul.”
“When Alison took her life, she permanently altered mine.”
The whole story of “Bluethroat morning” is 58 year old Harry Bliss’s trying to come to terms with his wife’s suicide. Six years later, and he is no farther forward. His grief is still raw. He has been vilified by the press. They say he drove her to it. Their darling. They accuse him of burning the manuscript for her newest book which was found in the grate at Hope Cottage.
Then, a week before he is due to embark on an early retirement, he is invited to his best friend’s house for dinner. This will prove a life-changing event, for it is there that he meets his friend’s nineteen-year-old daughter, Helen. She strongly resembles the woman in the photograph that his wife had based her book upon. There is an instant attraction. Despite the almost forty year age difference, they fall in love. Helen has an obsession with his late wife. She has a ‘girl-crush’ on this fabled woman who was both brilliant and beautiful. Helen accompanies Harry to Norfolk as he tries to come to terms with Alison’s decision to end her life.
In an attempt to understand Alison’s suicide, Harry abandons his job, and his reputation – with the added bonus of losing both his best friend, and his self-respect.
In Norfolk, they meet Ern Higham, a man in his late nineties, who lives alone in a cottage on the marsh. Alison had befriended this old man, and he shared his memories and secrets with her. He gives Harry a notebook that Alison had left with him… Ern seems to have had an intimate connection with the long dead Arabella.
It seems that there were many similarities between Alison’s life and the life of Arabella, the woman in the old photograph.
Is history doomed to repeating itself? How much grief can a person stand, and remain sane?
Bluethroat Morning is ultimately a novel about human frailty, loss, regret, obsession, and the infinite varieties of love. It is also about the corrosive nature of celebrity and the parasitic intrusiveness of paparazzi. Most of all, it is a book about children who lose their mothers prematurely, and how this loss, and other childhood events, shape their future lives.
This novel created a strange feeling in me while I read it. It was almost as though it was ephemeral, with a dream-like, elusive quality. The writing was nothing short of beautiful with an almost poetic feel. The author’s eloquence in describing the awesomely eerie Norfolk landscape was a treat to read. The pace was very slow, and the book was quite long, so I can imagine it would not appeal to everyone. Those who do take undertake the read will be rewarded with a sensual, hauntingly poignant, and memorable story.
March 27, 2018
This book is almost flawlessly written, being both elegant in its prose and haunting in its story, recalling the tragic romance of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, but with additional depth and a stunning atmospheric setting.
March 29, 2018
Bluethroat Morning is a haunting novel which remains in the memory long after the last page is turned. It’s many-layered story slips easily between the past and the present, with at the centre, Harry Bliss, an English teacher, trying to make sense of his famous wife’s suicide. Jacqui Lofthouse is brilliant at getting her characters to step off the page, capturing their moral ambiguity and complexity. She also writes beautifully about the landscape of the Norfolk coast where much of the story is set – you smell the salt marshes, hear the calls of sea birds. As for the story, it continues to surprise to the very end, but throughout embodies a deep sense of the value of human relationships. This is no cheap page turner but a fascinating exploration of how the past can shape people’s destinies in surprising and fascinating ways.
March 27, 2018
Tenderly drawn characters, emotional (at times erotic) tension, great sense of place and history. A fascinating mystery and compelling read.
May 16, 2018
Blackbird Books don't publish a lot of books, compared to other publishers, but when they do it's sure to be a good one. Quality is the word that springs to mind when I open a book published by Blackbird Books and Bluethroat Morning by Jacqui Lofthouse is of such an outstanding quality that I feel the need to shout it from the rooftops.
Harry Bliss has to deal with the awful after-effects of his wife's suicide. A successful model then author, Alison Bliss walked into the sea at the height of her writing career leaving a burnt manuscript behind. All fingers pointed at Harry for burning Alison's next novel but he professes his innocence. Even after six years have passed since her death, Alison Bliss still intrigues young and old alike.
An old family photograph of Harry's was the inspiration for Alison's lost novel and the woman in the photograph bears an uncanny resemblance to Harry's friend's nineteen year old daughter, Helen. Harry is drawn to Helen, albeit he doesn't resist very much, and the pair pick up Alison's trail which led to her death. What secrets did Alison uncover when she stayed at Hope Cottage in Glaven?
There is so much to talk about in Bluethroat Morning; among other things there are Bliss family secrets, Alison's personal insecurities and Harry's mid-life crisis. Although heartbreaking to read, it was quite eye-opening to read how insecure beautiful, successful Alison Oakley/Bliss was. Beauty doesn't necessarily equal happiness and I so wish that impressionable young women read Bluethroat Morning to understand that.
I loved the almost treasure hunt style of unearthing family secrets. Charles Bliss and his new bride, Arabella, along with Charles' son, George, are in the old photograph that intrigued Alison so much. George is Harry's grandfather who died before he was born. The mystery surrounds Arabella though, as she also mysteriously committed suicide in Glaven.
On to Harry's mid-life crisis. As inappropriate as his relationship with Helen was, you can't help who you fall in love with. The question is whether it was love at all; he used the word to keep Helen from running back to her parents but he knew exactly what he was doing and naïve Helen believed him. Don't get me wrong, Helen wasn't as innocent as I perhaps make her sound but I certainly think that Harry manipulated her for his own ends.
One final thing I have to mention is Alison's reminiscence about a holiday in my native North East of England. Although I'm a Jarrovian, I was born in South Shields and spent many a Sunday exploring Marsden Rock (before the collapse of the arch). Jacqui Lofthouse's description of these beautiful limestone sea-stacks is absolutely sublime and I was effortlessly transported to Marsden beach through her stunning descriptions.
Bluethroat Morning is an impeccable piece of fiction that has the feel of a literary classic and I got the impression that Jacqui Lofthouse has carefully chosen each and every single word. It's a book that will fit across many genres and definitely one I would recommend for discussion at book clubs.
I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.
Harry Bliss has to deal with the awful after-effects of his wife's suicide. A successful model then author, Alison Bliss walked into the sea at the height of her writing career leaving a burnt manuscript behind. All fingers pointed at Harry for burning Alison's next novel but he professes his innocence. Even after six years have passed since her death, Alison Bliss still intrigues young and old alike.
An old family photograph of Harry's was the inspiration for Alison's lost novel and the woman in the photograph bears an uncanny resemblance to Harry's friend's nineteen year old daughter, Helen. Harry is drawn to Helen, albeit he doesn't resist very much, and the pair pick up Alison's trail which led to her death. What secrets did Alison uncover when she stayed at Hope Cottage in Glaven?
There is so much to talk about in Bluethroat Morning; among other things there are Bliss family secrets, Alison's personal insecurities and Harry's mid-life crisis. Although heartbreaking to read, it was quite eye-opening to read how insecure beautiful, successful Alison Oakley/Bliss was. Beauty doesn't necessarily equal happiness and I so wish that impressionable young women read Bluethroat Morning to understand that.
I loved the almost treasure hunt style of unearthing family secrets. Charles Bliss and his new bride, Arabella, along with Charles' son, George, are in the old photograph that intrigued Alison so much. George is Harry's grandfather who died before he was born. The mystery surrounds Arabella though, as she also mysteriously committed suicide in Glaven.
On to Harry's mid-life crisis. As inappropriate as his relationship with Helen was, you can't help who you fall in love with. The question is whether it was love at all; he used the word to keep Helen from running back to her parents but he knew exactly what he was doing and naïve Helen believed him. Don't get me wrong, Helen wasn't as innocent as I perhaps make her sound but I certainly think that Harry manipulated her for his own ends.
One final thing I have to mention is Alison's reminiscence about a holiday in my native North East of England. Although I'm a Jarrovian, I was born in South Shields and spent many a Sunday exploring Marsden Rock (before the collapse of the arch). Jacqui Lofthouse's description of these beautiful limestone sea-stacks is absolutely sublime and I was effortlessly transported to Marsden beach through her stunning descriptions.
Bluethroat Morning is an impeccable piece of fiction that has the feel of a literary classic and I got the impression that Jacqui Lofthouse has carefully chosen each and every single word. It's a book that will fit across many genres and definitely one I would recommend for discussion at book clubs.
I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.
May 18, 2018
As soon as I saw the blurb for Bluethroat Morning, I knew I had to read it. The North Norfolk setting is one I know very well indeed and I was hoping for a book that brought its beautiful and seductive coastline to life. So I couldn’t have been happier when I began to read and was immediately drawn into its intriguing and shadowy world. This is a long novel and it took me a few days to complete but that’s because I felt consumed by every single word and my reading speed slowed right down. So do make sure you leave some time to explore this mystery, you will not want to rush it!
There’s a haunting feel to the narrative that gives off a dreamlike quality to the enveloping storyline. This is very much a slow burning plot, intensely character driven and the mystery at it’s heart is one that takes the threads of past and present and twists them together to create a compelling tapestry of life and death. When Alison Bliss commits suicide, she leaves behind her devastated schoolteacher husband Harry. But an unexpected relationship with a young girl leads him back to the Norfolk village where Alison decided to kill herself. Will Harry be able to work through the clues to the past and finally move on with his life? I loved how we never actually meet the character of Alison, only delving into her psyche through reading the notebooks she has left behind, but her ghostly presence affected everyone she had come into contact with. Harry’s new relationship became full on very quickly which surprised me as the fast pace of his journey to discover the truth was a huge contrast with his time spent in Norfolk where the pace slowed considerably.
This is a beautifully written and exquisitely plotted novel that uses cleverly crafted characterisation to explore the themes of love, loss and letting go. It is dark but never depressing and contemplative without being judgemental. One of the most expressive and descriptive books I have read this year. A literary masterpiece!
There’s a haunting feel to the narrative that gives off a dreamlike quality to the enveloping storyline. This is very much a slow burning plot, intensely character driven and the mystery at it’s heart is one that takes the threads of past and present and twists them together to create a compelling tapestry of life and death. When Alison Bliss commits suicide, she leaves behind her devastated schoolteacher husband Harry. But an unexpected relationship with a young girl leads him back to the Norfolk village where Alison decided to kill herself. Will Harry be able to work through the clues to the past and finally move on with his life? I loved how we never actually meet the character of Alison, only delving into her psyche through reading the notebooks she has left behind, but her ghostly presence affected everyone she had come into contact with. Harry’s new relationship became full on very quickly which surprised me as the fast pace of his journey to discover the truth was a huge contrast with his time spent in Norfolk where the pace slowed considerably.
This is a beautifully written and exquisitely plotted novel that uses cleverly crafted characterisation to explore the themes of love, loss and letting go. It is dark but never depressing and contemplative without being judgemental. One of the most expressive and descriptive books I have read this year. A literary masterpiece!
May 7, 2018
A well written mystery story with lots of twists & turn between now & then.
January 20, 2008
Jacqui Lofthouse, Bluethroat Morning (Bloomsbury, 2001)
Jacqui Lofthouse's second novel has faded into obscurity at an amazing rate (Amazon will still let you add it to your cart, but when it comes to actually shipping the thing...). This is truly a travesty of justice, for Bluethroat Morning is the best literary mystery I've read in a very long time.
Harry Bliss' wife, Alison, committed suicide six years ago by the rather odd method of stripping, walking into the ocean, and drowning. It takes a lot to drown yourself while not weighted down. (Try it sometime.) His life since has been almost cloistered, nothing but work and sleep. Until, that is, he meets his best friend's daughter, a nineteen-year-old who happens to bear a striking resemblance to Harry's grandfather's second wife, about whom Alison's second novel was going to be about before she killed herself in the middle of writing it. Helen, the daughter, is vicariously attracted to Harry through being one of Alison's legion of fans; it's almost inevitable the two of them begin a torrid affair. This is the lynchpin that drives Harry to the understanding that he must find out what happened in the two weeks before Alison's death, while she was on working holiday at the resort town of Glaven, in order to get on with his own life.
Bluethroat Morning is plotted with such an intricacy that the reader will start seeing symbolism in every word (how much of it is red herring I will leave to you to discover) and start reading ominous gestures into every action taken by every character, major or minor. The subplots and various threads of the mystery are skillfully woven, with nothing left unresolved at any point and every character eventually finding a use, even the red herrings. All this combines with Lofthouse's easy economy with words and direct approach to the subject matter to create a book both complex and readable, not an easy thing to find. Hovers a little on the "tell" side of "show, don't tell" now and again, but that's the book's only flaw (and it is a minor one; never more than a few toes over the line). Absolutely astonishing, and highly recommended. A candidate for the year's ten best reads list. ****
Jacqui Lofthouse's second novel has faded into obscurity at an amazing rate (Amazon will still let you add it to your cart, but when it comes to actually shipping the thing...). This is truly a travesty of justice, for Bluethroat Morning is the best literary mystery I've read in a very long time.
Harry Bliss' wife, Alison, committed suicide six years ago by the rather odd method of stripping, walking into the ocean, and drowning. It takes a lot to drown yourself while not weighted down. (Try it sometime.) His life since has been almost cloistered, nothing but work and sleep. Until, that is, he meets his best friend's daughter, a nineteen-year-old who happens to bear a striking resemblance to Harry's grandfather's second wife, about whom Alison's second novel was going to be about before she killed herself in the middle of writing it. Helen, the daughter, is vicariously attracted to Harry through being one of Alison's legion of fans; it's almost inevitable the two of them begin a torrid affair. This is the lynchpin that drives Harry to the understanding that he must find out what happened in the two weeks before Alison's death, while she was on working holiday at the resort town of Glaven, in order to get on with his own life.
Bluethroat Morning is plotted with such an intricacy that the reader will start seeing symbolism in every word (how much of it is red herring I will leave to you to discover) and start reading ominous gestures into every action taken by every character, major or minor. The subplots and various threads of the mystery are skillfully woven, with nothing left unresolved at any point and every character eventually finding a use, even the red herrings. All this combines with Lofthouse's easy economy with words and direct approach to the subject matter to create a book both complex and readable, not an easy thing to find. Hovers a little on the "tell" side of "show, don't tell" now and again, but that's the book's only flaw (and it is a minor one; never more than a few toes over the line). Absolutely astonishing, and highly recommended. A candidate for the year's ten best reads list. ****
May 23, 2018
I’ll understand if you call me a bit of a lightweight, but however beautiful the cover (and this one most certainly is) or enticing a book’s description, my heart often sinks a little when I open a book on my kindle and see it’s going to take me a tad under five hours to read. Reading in short bursts, this book actually took me an unheard of five days to read – but I loved every wonderful moment.
The writing is singularly beautiful – the descriptions of the Norfolk setting, underpinning and enhancing the emotional content of the book, simply stunning, and unlike anything I’ve read before. The story itself is gloriously convoluted, with a mystery at its core and a search for the reasons behind Alison’s suicide – the story’s development, the narrative drive, is slow and measured, but quite all-consuming. The writing has an emotional quality, at times an real sensuality and erotic edge, sitting quite comfortably alongside the factual and mundane.
It moves between present day, the early days of Harry and Alison’s relationship and the lead up to her death, and looks back at the secrets of the past – but not in a linear way, circling instead, revealing new insights and resonances as it does so. The characterisation is superb. The voice of Harry as narrator is a clear one, his character not always likeable, but his desperate need to achieve understanding, however personally difficult that might prove to be, is absolutely compelling. The insights into Alison’s despair, through memories and through her writing, are searingly real and heartbreakingly sad. And then there’s Helen – I found her simply fascinating, by turns naive and knowing – along with other key players in the narrative, from the newspaper man who constantly hounds them to the American professor, through the players in the historical story that shapes much of the present. And then there’s Ern Higham…
I’m saying a lot about my reaction to this book, but not much about the story – I don’t think I need to, but I really should be clearer about its appeal. There’s a central mystery, a mildly explosive ending, and a digging into facts that might appeal to a crime reader. There’s a gothic and atmospheric feel, a degree of smoke and mirrors, that takes it – just about – into psychological thriller territory. There’s much here about relationships – love, obsession, grief and loss. There’s a central and recurring focus on the parent-child relationship, along with appearance and reality, and the whole theme of creativity with its cleverly introduced literary allusions. This may not an easy read, but it’s an immensely rewarding one – and I’ll confess that I absolutely loved it.
The writing is singularly beautiful – the descriptions of the Norfolk setting, underpinning and enhancing the emotional content of the book, simply stunning, and unlike anything I’ve read before. The story itself is gloriously convoluted, with a mystery at its core and a search for the reasons behind Alison’s suicide – the story’s development, the narrative drive, is slow and measured, but quite all-consuming. The writing has an emotional quality, at times an real sensuality and erotic edge, sitting quite comfortably alongside the factual and mundane.
It moves between present day, the early days of Harry and Alison’s relationship and the lead up to her death, and looks back at the secrets of the past – but not in a linear way, circling instead, revealing new insights and resonances as it does so. The characterisation is superb. The voice of Harry as narrator is a clear one, his character not always likeable, but his desperate need to achieve understanding, however personally difficult that might prove to be, is absolutely compelling. The insights into Alison’s despair, through memories and through her writing, are searingly real and heartbreakingly sad. And then there’s Helen – I found her simply fascinating, by turns naive and knowing – along with other key players in the narrative, from the newspaper man who constantly hounds them to the American professor, through the players in the historical story that shapes much of the present. And then there’s Ern Higham…
I’m saying a lot about my reaction to this book, but not much about the story – I don’t think I need to, but I really should be clearer about its appeal. There’s a central mystery, a mildly explosive ending, and a digging into facts that might appeal to a crime reader. There’s a gothic and atmospheric feel, a degree of smoke and mirrors, that takes it – just about – into psychological thriller territory. There’s much here about relationships – love, obsession, grief and loss. There’s a central and recurring focus on the parent-child relationship, along with appearance and reality, and the whole theme of creativity with its cleverly introduced literary allusions. This may not an easy read, but it’s an immensely rewarding one – and I’ll confess that I absolutely loved it.
May 17, 2018
Alison, a well know model and writer commits suicide one Morning. Harry her husband is affected by not knowing the reason for this. He spends all his time trying to find out why, until he meets Helen, his friends daughter 20 years younger than himself, who he falls in love with because she has a touch of Alison about her. The book is about their love and the effects of it. I found the book very well written, but too wordy for me. I could only read it in small doses but was interested enough to read to the end.
May 23, 2018
Beautifully written drama about the world of writing, the press and the dark side of what it means to live a public life. Explores the complicated and messy reasons people find themselves attracted to one another, ideas about privacy and legacy, about grief and sex and about validation and identity. Authentic characters and relationships. There are strong echoes of Iris Murdoch’s The Black Prince in this high quality read which may be a little slow for some. Recommend.
May 23, 2018
bluethroat morning by Jaqui lofthouse.
Alison Bliss, celebrity model and critically acclaimed writer, walks into the sea one ‘bluethroat morning’. In death she becomes a greater icon than in life, and the Norfolk village where she lived is soon a place of pilgrimage. Six years later her husband Harry, a schoolteacher, is still haunted by her suicide and faithful to her memory. Until he meets Helen and they fall in love.
Harry and Helen’s relationship initiates a return to the scene of Alison’s death where they meet ninety-eight year old Ern Higham, and a tale is revealed that has been generations in the making. As Harry pieces together a tragic history and finally confronts his own pain, he discovers that to truly move forward, first he must understand the past ...
This was a good read with likeable characters. I liked Harry. but I wasn't sure about helen. 4*.
Alison Bliss, celebrity model and critically acclaimed writer, walks into the sea one ‘bluethroat morning’. In death she becomes a greater icon than in life, and the Norfolk village where she lived is soon a place of pilgrimage. Six years later her husband Harry, a schoolteacher, is still haunted by her suicide and faithful to her memory. Until he meets Helen and they fall in love.
Harry and Helen’s relationship initiates a return to the scene of Alison’s death where they meet ninety-eight year old Ern Higham, and a tale is revealed that has been generations in the making. As Harry pieces together a tragic history and finally confronts his own pain, he discovers that to truly move forward, first he must understand the past ...
This was a good read with likeable characters. I liked Harry. but I wasn't sure about helen. 4*.
November 21, 2019
I was expecting a bit more thriller from the advertisements I'd seen for this book. It was more a retrospective about Harold and his life. He is a teacher who still mourns his wife who committed suicide 6 years ago. Set in Norfolk , England Harold reminisces about his wife Allison who was almost 20 years younger than him. Now Harry has met Helen and he wonders if he can forget about his dead wife. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.
May 23, 2018
I think Harry Bliss came to some sort of a closure; and I really liked how the book ended. I got an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
May 22, 2018
This was not a simple thriller to be devoured at one sitting. It was a complex multi layered literary thriller with beautiful writing which needed to be read slowly and imbibed over a few days. This is a novel about love and loss, suicide, the issues of fame and living a public life, about writing and about writing about other people and the further responsibility that brings. Past and present intertwine against the atmospheric Norfolk background as Harry Bliss seeks to understand the suicide of his wife in a remote village as she researched back into history, using the story of Arabella Bliss to echo her own. Harry, returns to Norfolk with his new love, Helen, to the scene of Alison's death and gradually a tragic history is revealed. Only by understanding the past, can Harry move on.
Thanks to TBC and the author for a review copy. Thoroughly recommended!
Thanks to TBC and the author for a review copy. Thoroughly recommended!
April 19, 2018
At almost 400 pages, Bluethroat Morning is an emotional, serious and complex psychological thriller revolving around a widower's investigation into the mysterious suicide of his author wife at a quiet coastal resort some six years previous. Jacqui writes uncommonly well, weaving this anything-but-linear tale in a very mature, deft fashion. The nature of the subject means that this may not be the most accessible of her novels, but the last 40-50 pages make for compelling reading and are far from gloomy. I'm generally good at guessing endings halfway through, but I've never read another book quite like it. 4/5
May 21, 2018
I started reading this and I admit it took me a while to get into it, so much that I was ready to give up, but I persevered with it and enjoyed it in the end. Its a slow burner but worth the read. It is a long book so took me a few days to read but I think a book as descriptive as this shouldn’t be rushed. Such a good story and totally different to my usual reads.
December 24, 2020
From admiration to annoyance
I marveled at beautifully written passages at the beginning of reading this book and at points along the way to the end. However, I grew increasingly annoyed at jarring inconsistencies and contrivance with the plot so that the pretty words all felt hollow.
The writer is so clumsily obvious with her desire to reveal the extreme "connectedness" of everything that she overplays events to erroneously portray them as being significant in Allison's life. At the end, however, the husband and readers discover the former events are actually quite insignificant! WHAT? Why did the writer cram the theory down our throats only to back off of it at the end? Does she consider this misleading thread to be some kind of "literary" red herring? No. It is just bad writing.
The plot is so weak that it ends not with a bang, but a whimper. Several characters and events are frayed, dangling threads with little reason for being. Lofthouse is obviously capable of beautiful expression, but she fails at telling a good story.
I marveled at beautifully written passages at the beginning of reading this book and at points along the way to the end. However, I grew increasingly annoyed at jarring inconsistencies and contrivance with the plot so that the pretty words all felt hollow.
The writer is so clumsily obvious with her desire to reveal the extreme "connectedness" of everything that she overplays events to erroneously portray them as being significant in Allison's life. At the end, however, the husband and readers discover the former events are actually quite insignificant! WHAT? Why did the writer cram the theory down our throats only to back off of it at the end? Does she consider this misleading thread to be some kind of "literary" red herring? No. It is just bad writing.
The plot is so weak that it ends not with a bang, but a whimper. Several characters and events are frayed, dangling threads with little reason for being. Lofthouse is obviously capable of beautiful expression, but she fails at telling a good story.
September 23, 2018
Pretentious twaddle. Several hours of my life I'll never get back. The protagonist, Harry Bliss, is such a caricature as to appear carved from lignum vitae, so wooden is he. Various pre-packaged devices are deployed - the affair with the younger girl, the famous dead wife, the "notebook" which turns out to be not notes, but a sort of diary, conveniently explaining all the missing parts of the story, but at mind-numbing cost to plough through it. Thankfully it can be skimmed and the story reconstructed without having to read every word.
There is a plot, with some merit to it, but unfortunately the characters don't really do it justice.
There is a plot, with some merit to it, but unfortunately the characters don't really do it justice.
October 29, 2016
Good plot, a bit drawn out.
July 30, 2019
Harry Bliss is a school teacher, married to Alison, a former model, turned writer who decides to return to her Norfolk village to work on her book, an exploration of Harry's grandfather's wife Arabella. One day while there, Alison inexplicably walks into the Norfolk sea in an apparent suicide.
Six years later, Harry is still devastated by her loss. His friend and colleague at school, Richard, has a daughter Helen who is also infatuated with Alison's writing. They embark on a questionable relationship, with Harry chucking in his job, and they flee to the Norfolk village in search of answers as to why Alison suicided.
None of the main characters are particularly likeable but the reader's engagement is sustained by unravelling the mystery surrounding Alison's suicide. Lofthouse captures the atmosphere of the bleak Norfolk coast which infuses both her story and that of Arabella. We meet some other memorable characters of the village with whom Alison interacted. I found it a very interesting read and particularly liked the way Lofthouse interwove the historical with the present. However, although I realise many men fall for young women decades younger than themselves, the fact that this was his best friend's daughter, someone he had known from birth, was quite unsavoury for me with the obvious inequities in power. No doubt this was intended by Lofthouse but it did distance me from the character of Harry in a way which proved to be quite a barrier to empathising with his journey of grief.
Six years later, Harry is still devastated by her loss. His friend and colleague at school, Richard, has a daughter Helen who is also infatuated with Alison's writing. They embark on a questionable relationship, with Harry chucking in his job, and they flee to the Norfolk village in search of answers as to why Alison suicided.
None of the main characters are particularly likeable but the reader's engagement is sustained by unravelling the mystery surrounding Alison's suicide. Lofthouse captures the atmosphere of the bleak Norfolk coast which infuses both her story and that of Arabella. We meet some other memorable characters of the village with whom Alison interacted. I found it a very interesting read and particularly liked the way Lofthouse interwove the historical with the present. However, although I realise many men fall for young women decades younger than themselves, the fact that this was his best friend's daughter, someone he had known from birth, was quite unsavoury for me with the obvious inequities in power. No doubt this was intended by Lofthouse but it did distance me from the character of Harry in a way which proved to be quite a barrier to empathising with his journey of grief.
August 11, 2019
This dark but fascinating story follows the main character as he six years after his famous wife committed suicide, makes a trip to the town where she died. Living alone in a cottage, she was investigating and writing a book about the life and eventual suicide of another woman whose photo she found in her husband's collection of family photos. Unfortunately, the unfinished manuscript was found burnt after her death, and Harry, her husband is held responsible both for that and even the presumed despair which led to his wife's suicide. Harry interviews an elderly man who proves instrumental in revealing much of the mystery behind the two suicides, especially when he returns to Harry his wife's journal which illuminated her thoughts during the last days of her life. This somber narrative is full of reflection as Harry ponders how "familial relationships" and "broken connections, even generations apart" are fraught with difficulty and despair. One quibble: A few swear words used.
May 13, 2018
A very dark psychological thriller about an English teacher, Harry Bliss, who after six years is still unable to get over the suicide of his wife. This is a very well written book, with an intriguing and complex plot.
The characters are also very well portrayed, although I was only fond of Alison Bliss and Ern Higham. It was very interesting to learn more about Alison and the reasons for her suicide. We get an insight into her thinking, she was clearly suffering from some form of depression and took the only way out she believed she had. An exceptional read that will stay with me for a long time.
The characters are also very well portrayed, although I was only fond of Alison Bliss and Ern Higham. It was very interesting to learn more about Alison and the reasons for her suicide. We get an insight into her thinking, she was clearly suffering from some form of depression and took the only way out she believed she had. An exceptional read that will stay with me for a long time.
May 24, 2018
The story unfolds against the background of the eerie Norfolk coast. The prose is poetic and literary, slowing down the reading pace forcing the reader to muse as they read. For me there were echoes of well-known classics, cleverly reworked by the author in her take of this faintly gothic, well plotted, exquisite novel. I will reread this book to better savour each word and image and to better understand the convoluted plot. This was a five star read for me. Thank you to TBC for the copy to review.
June 12, 2018
This book left me dumb struck for a while after finishing it. It was a very personal and poignant reading experience for me as I had lost my fiancé to suicide when I was 21. As anniversaries and Birthdays fall around this time, it did mean that I truly engaged with the characters. The wonderful descriptive writing and the realism of the situation and character’s reactions grabbed me right until the end.
September 13, 2018
Overlong
The main character in the book was I thought absolutely self obsessed. All under the veneer of ‘the great writer’. The character of her husband irritated me too....weak. The writing was very good but the whole novel was too wrung out.
The main character had committed suicide. The rest of the book was devoted to her husband’s search for the reason. I nodded off towards the end.
The main character in the book was I thought absolutely self obsessed. All under the veneer of ‘the great writer’. The character of her husband irritated me too....weak. The writing was very good but the whole novel was too wrung out.
The main character had committed suicide. The rest of the book was devoted to her husband’s search for the reason. I nodded off towards the end.
May 6, 2018
I have to admit that the first few chapters of this book had me wondering whether to continue or give up. I came to the conclusion that this extremely descriptive and well written novel has to be read at a leisurely pace to absorb the intricate details of the storyline. A fascinating and haunting mystery. Thanks to TBC Reviewer Group for giving me the opportunity to read this book.
August 23, 2019
Emotional and engaging. Perfect pairing of both the past and present. A love story full of longing and pain, with a splash of suspense woven in. Easy weekend read.
Thank you NetGalley and Blackbird Digital Books for this edition and hearing my honest review. Looking forward to reading more with you
#partner
Thank you NetGalley and Blackbird Digital Books for this edition and hearing my honest review. Looking forward to reading more with you
#partner
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