FALLING AWAY

by Candida Crewe

At 52, Dorothy is a midwife in Somerset. As she sees her ladies through the trials of childbirth, she finds a kind of peace. But she has bleak memories - of 10 years spent in an institution for wayward girls in Glasgow. Then she meets Harold, who gradually allows her to glimpse another world.

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Candida Crewe was born in London in 1964. She is the daughter of Quentin Crewe and Angela Huth. A freelance journalist, she has been a contrubutor to the London Standard, Harpers and Queen, and The Mail on Sunday.

Reviews

[Sue Corbett · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this difficult to get into and was ready to give it up but, reading it firba book group, I pushed on and was please£ I did as it did get easier but it was at first mostly a catalogue of men’s bad deeds, inconstancy and uncaring attitudes to family.
There were some nice sentiments and thoughtful comments on relationships but then the ending was so twee, it didn’t really redeem itself.
It’s a shame because the treatment of ‘fallen women’ anyway and going on well into the seventies, is something that needs to be known.
I shan’t read another from CC.

[Jay Wakefield · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is quite a slow-starting but easy read. I like the juxtaposition of hundrum life - if indeed life as a midwife is at all hundrum with the life that our heroine had had earlier. This book has a lot of passion, tragedy and suspense but it is still not too difficult a read.