Brown Owl's Guide To Life [Paperback] [Jan 01, 2006] KATE HARRISON

by Kate Harrison

Does growing up mean growing out of your dreams?

Shy, sweet-natured Lucy Collins is used to being pushed around. For the first eighteen years of her life, her widowed mother Judith ruled the roost. Now Lucy's husband, her seven-year-old daughter and even Buster the cat boss her about. But her mother's premature death leaves Lucy an orphan at the age of thirty-five. She's devastated...but she's also free. After a lifetime of being a disappointment to everyone, is it finally time Lucy grew up? As she clears out her mother's rambling house, Lucy discovers a trunk full of memories...her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother were all Brown Owls: capable, no-nonsense matriarchs who were the leading lights of the Girl Guide movement. They spent their spare time preparing the next generation for their roles as wives and mothers with a mixture of campfire songs, sew-on badges and reef knots. But could the old values and frontier spirit now hold the key to help Lucy make the changes she needs in her life?

Genres: Chick Lit, Fiction, Romance

416 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Kate was born in Wigan, and lived in more than a dozen places when she was growing up, including England, Scotland, and the Netherlands. She trained as a print journalist and then worked for the BBC as a reporter and Education Correspondent, before switching to behind the scenes producing on programmes including Newsround and Panorama. Her final 'proper' job involved coming up with TV programme ideas for the BBC whilst sitting on beanbags. She is a dab hand at writing on white boards.

Reviews

[Gem · Rating 1 out of 5]

I do not DNF books as a rule but life is too short to willingly read fatphobic drivel written by a fad diet author.

the fact this has 3.4 stars is shocking.

fuck this book.

[Tricia · Rating 2 out of 5]

At various points of this book I was tempted to abandon it, but I was curious whether it would get better or if my predujices were unfounded.

Unfortunately it didn't get much better. I really liked the blurb on the back, but the book didn't live up to that promise. Instead of being one woman's emotional journey, it hopped between her and her old Brownie/Pixie troop. It head-hopped in 1st and 3rd person, it time travelled from the 1970s to present day... it felt like a mess.

I didn't have sympathy for most of the characters (I hated the main character for most of the first half of the book), and I was really angry with their unrealistic and sensationalistic portrayal of the 'fat' character - and her simple 'I just started walking' transformation down to a "normal" woman. It was the start of this character's storyline and the inevitable way it was heading that nearly made me put down the book. I probably wouldn't have been unjust to abandon it at that point, and I certainly don't recommend this one to anyone.

[3min45secs · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this book would take me back to being a Brownie myself. My Mother-in-law bought me this as a treat and I was really looking forward to it. I thought as a current Brownie leader that I would really enjoy a fictional book being about the Brownies. However, this was not the case. I had spoken to a couple of other Brownie leaders who had already read the book and they were not impressed. I read it anyway with high hopes. I did relate to a number of the things which Harrison talks about but I could not get past how negative Harrison was about a number of aspects about her friends, about Guiding and about the main characters own personal image.


The main character, Lucy Collins is a mum of one who lives with her husband in the suburbs of Manchester. She is a "stereotypical" stay at home mum. She does work but her main focus in life is her husband and her daughter. That is until Lucy's mum, Judith, dies after a short but awful illness. This is a shock to Lucy and she starts to re-evaluate her 
life. Lucy's husband wants a stay at home wife for him to care for and to pine for him when he has gone out to the big world of work. This is what Lucy thought she wanted, she thought she liked the comfort of being looked after but she is thrown into turmoil and has to make some massive decisions about what she wants.

Lucy used to be in the Brownies, her mum was the Brown Owl as was her Grandma before her. For me personally, Guiding is about building and encouraging the abilities of girls. It is about developing a girls confidence and making sure she knows she can do things. Helping and boosting her thoughts in a safe space designed just for girls. The Brownies which Lucy seemed to go to, ran by Judith, was not like this. I don't know whether this was the author's intention or whether she just does not know the aim of Girlguiding but she talks in such a negative manner about everyone in the book. Harrison allows Lucy to talk negatively about all of her Brownie friends and each character, Terry, Chris and Paula, especially Paula. There is a very negative image of themselves. Paula repeatedly talks about her self as a huge, fat person. She talks about herself being grotesque and monstrous. How she can't walk down the street without becoming out of breath and sweating. How she spends all her time either in bed or on the computer and can get sores from lying down for too long. I had this image of a massively obese person. A person who struggles to look after themselves due to their size and weight. In the book, Paula talks about how she is a hideous size 18. A size 18!!! Yep, a size 18! I was so annoyed when I read this that Harrison clearly has this distorted image of what a size 18 person is like and she feels they should be ridiculed and humiliated rather than encouraged and promoted, if they feel the need, to lose weight.

I thought the characters didn't have much depth and for two best friends, Lucy and Terry do not know each other very well. They talk about having known each other for years and how no one else could change their relationship, yet they don't tell one another anything and they do not keep in touch very well. Judith talked to Terry more about her relationship and life than she did her own daughter. Then Terry kept this information from Lucy when she knew Lucy wanted to know more about her late father. Chris is to wrapped up with her own life because she can't see how her life is worthwhile without either a man in it or her business and Paula has this warped image of herself.

Even with the downfall of the main characters, the background story isn't too bad. The lives of the girls interlink and come back together in adult life and they are able to rekindle their friendship. They make new friendships and new relationships, re-evaluate their own lives and decide what they want and what they don't. Lucy working through her thoughts and worries about her relationship with her husband, Paula dealing with her online obsession of gaming, Chris deciding if she does want to move from man to man and Terry working out which man she actually wants. Lucy creates a new friendship with her late father's friend and this made me feel really uncomfortable. I'll leave this for you to decide what you think, I was not a fan.

Overall I did not like the characters in this book. They were very negative and Harrison tries to put a massive downer on Guiding. I am not having this. I would absolutely recommend anyone to join Girlguiding. Those of you who follow my blog will know the amazing opportunities I have had from Guiding, new friends, Switzerland, Go Karting, Rock Climbing, Kayaking and I am so looking forward for what is to come, Pack Holidays, The Deep, India and much more! Join us, you won't regret it!

For more reviews visit threeminutesfortyfiveseconds.blogspot.co.uk

[Rhiannon Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

While some bits I remember from the Brownies, this book was a little disappointing as I was expecting it to be more of a guide to life! Ended a bit abruptly, spent the whole book building and building for it to just end. Also couldn't overlook the words she was using to describe one of the characters, even in 2006 it wasn't appropriate!

[Helen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh, I knew this would happen eventually……

I’ve been really lucky with choosing books over the past 18 months, but I’ve finally hit upon one I just couldn’t fall in love with. This one nearly ended as a DNF, but storyline intrigued me just enough, that I wanted to know what happened at the end.

The plot just felt like a mess for the most part and nothing like the blurb describes it as. It’s less a guide to life and more a misogynistic take on Girl Guiding. The way Harrison describes the purpose of the Brownies, is nothing like I remember it – thank goodness!

The story feels contrived and is staged to fit in with a check-list of elements Harrison has felt compelled to include. Marriage breakdown, re-discovery of self, skeletons in the closet – check, check, check!

I didn’t have sympathy for most of the characters. The lack of characterisation pales in comparison to the amount of fat shaming in this book. The character in questions, Paula’s whole personality is the fact that she’s fat. When I say fat, I mean a size 18! At several sizes bigger than myself, some of the descriptions of her made me feel pretty shit.

Harrison clearly has this distorted image of what a size 18 person is like and she feels they should be ridiculed and humiliated. It does not surprise me in the slightness that Harrison isn’t plus-size herself. What does surprise me is the amount of diet books she’s written……….

Overall this book reads like Harrison came up with the bare bones of an idea, has little to no experience of Girl Guiding and decided writing this book was a great way to grace us with her judgemental ideals.

[Anagha S · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got this book at a thrift sale & I'd been putting off reading it for so long for good reason. The first half took miserably long to pick up pace. I had no idea about Guide-life, the British phrasing & incessant fatshaming of Paula's character (& her unbearable usage of "duck" everywhere)... It took me a good while to finish the book, throughout the ordeal I just wanted to get it over with & never once enjoyed it.

Throughout the book, there was hints of a huge event that happened with Simonetta and a supposed scandal involving Lucy's father. However, the grand reveal wasn't all that grand.

I couldn't understand the climax, for all the hype. Was Simonetta running away w her dad the biggest plot twist the author could think of? All in all, I hate to leave bad reviews on a book cuz I know any writer works hard to get out a story but this- I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, at one point I almost wanted to throw this books away, because the kept 'hinting' at the big bad terrible thing. After updating my reading progress, they did it again, twice on the same damn page. But afyer that significantly less. So I actually got to enjoy the story. It's a typical feel good book so yeah, I liked it. Not sure why they tried to make a big deal out of the big bad thing. It wasn't that bad. But then again, after reading and watching a lot of thrillers and murder mysteries my idea of something unspeakable is little different than most people I guess. Anyway, if you're looking for something light and with a happy ending, then this book will do :)

[Susan Pearson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, I was initially drawn to it as I have such happy memories of my time in the Brownies. The idea of meeting up with your six again is at once exciting and terrifying and the different characters response to the idea reflects this.

It is really good to see that in the end although all the girls lives have taken very different directions they were all there for each other.

[Jacula · Rating 3 out of 5]

When Lucy's mother, Judith (Brown Owl), dies she leaves letters for Lucy's former 'Brownie Six Pixies'. This begins a rollercoaster ride of questions about the past, the present and the future... and not just for Lucy. A book about revelations and self-discovery.

[Beverly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was recommended to me because of the connection with the Girl Guide movement. Unfortunately, I wasn't too thrilled by it. I was expecting the main character to come across notes from her mother and grandmother that would inspire her - be a guide to her life. I'm in the Girl Guide movement in Canada so I don't know how different things are in England but reading the parts about Brownies didn't sit right with me. I felt like the author had been in Brownies as a child and was imprinting those memories into modern day Brownies. I really wanted to like this book from the Brownie perspective but it fell short. As a light easy reading book, it meets that mark.

[Christine Webb · Rating 1 out of 5]

As a former Brownie Leader, I thought this book sounded interesting. But it really doesn't live up to expectations. I wanted to find out about Simonetta. What happened to her? The bits at the beginning of each chapter did not read like anything from Guiding. Did the author make them up? Also the ending for each character was glib with no depth. We never really found out much about Lucy's Dad. An easy read. The author is trying yo be Joanna Trollope but does not succeed nearly as well.

[Faye · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started off quite liking this book but as I read on I found it quite tiresome. The characters were all very one note and at the same time didn’t have distinctive personalities. They all pretty much blended. Some of the dialogue was cringey, especially when Seb was talking.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first physical book I've read in a while. It took me a while to get hooked, probably longer than I would ordinarily have persevered but I enjoyed it in the end and had to read the end in one go to unravel all the loose ends. Easygoing and a good book for before bed.

[Rhyann Dines-Lucas · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit of a slow starter, but a really lovely read
The trials of life and the realisation that no ones life is perfect x

[Kayleigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice, easy read. I was a Brownie in the 90s so was nice to see lots of true references and also memories from those times.

Didnt expect that fling, though..!

[Helen Palmer · Rating 3 out of 5]

fun read

[Lorraine Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book really hard going.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was never Brownie, but this was still a lovely read about friendship

[Sharon Dorricott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it

[Tracey · Rating 2 out of 5]

An okay read.

[Trisha Noreen · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book was nice at first… yet over time i found it boring and it got me thinking… i should be mindful next in buying a book.

[Maria (a) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lucy is obviously the main character, though I thought she was the least interesting. Don’t get me wrong, I liked her, and I cheered her on as she finally wove her own way through life, but I was always just a bit happier when we got to spend time with any of the other characters.

There’s Chris, who has built up a sex shop empire and is now losing it all when a big firm comes in and buys it all from her. She’s rich but directionless. There’s Paula, who is so low on self-confidence that she pushed her husband away without at even one moment stopping with loving him. And there’s Terri, who is on her way to becoming ordained but so lost in life that she isn’t even sure it’s what she wants anymore – I loved her story. The loneliness that permeated every word was just so palpable. When she’s at a retreat to try and rediscover her faith and someone starts talking to her, these are her thoughts:

“I’m Howard,” he said, stretching a bony hand across the table.
And old-fashioned name. Perhaps he was a ghost. Perhaps she was too. This was purgatory but no one had bothered to tell her.

My heart just broke for her.

Then there are of course the side characters. Judith, Lucy’s mother, seems to have been a wonderful person and I love that she cared enough about her daughter to try and give her a social net to catch her after her death. Andrew, her husband, I absolutely loathed; in every way he treated Lucy it was so obvious that he didn’t really respect her – his every ‘Lulu’ sounded condescending. There is this one scene in which Lucy has stayed home sick, and Andrew has left her a note:

Hope you feel better soon, Lulu. If you do perk up, would you be able to drop my suits into the dry-cleaners? They’re a bit grubby. But if you’re not up to going out, my shoes could do with a polish. I wouldn’t ask but I know how you hate just sitting around. Love, A.

He expects her to just go on as if nothing has changed after her mother died, and expects her to do everything around the house. He’s just not a particularly nice person or good husband.

The story is set in Troughton, a (fictional?) city a train ride from near Manchester. It’s the kind of place where everyone knows each other, and where you mostly stay from when you’re young until you die, unless you’ve been able to escape its confines. It’s really fitting for the theme of breaking free from your restraints; the story would have a completely different feel had it been said in Manchester itself.

No matter how much I would have loved reading more about the other characters, I did love the way this story was set up. It mainly consists of three storylines:
1. The girls trying to find each other again and trying to help each other through the rough times they’re facing. I love how they were so unwilling at first, but ended up really enjoying each other’s company. The scene in which they urge on Paula to participate in the assault course was brilliant.
2. The flashbacks to when the girls were first together and what happened then. There was this sense of foreboding over these chapters, because you know something is about to go seriously wrong, even though you don’t know what. I think these were my least favourite part of the book, though I did love the little glimpses into who these women used to be.
3. Lucy finding out who her parents actually were. I loved this storyline. I loved seeing how her idea of the perfect parents slowly started to crumble, and how it only seemed to make Lucy more determined to find out what had happened. She’s desperate to make her own choices in life, but I think uncovering that her parents were not who she thought they were has helped her find some sort of peace with straying from the path.

[Big Book Little Book · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helen for Big Book Little Book

This was lent to me by a friend and I was rather intrigued by the title. I was once a Brownie and thinking of a guide to life by a Brown Owl struck me as being amusing. Although perhaps I do Brown Owl’s a disservice in this, all those badges and promises probably make for a pretty decent self-help manual!

The story is based around six Brownies from the 1st Troughton Pack. The story tracks between the present day, where they are all grown up and their past together as Pixies. It transpires that there was an incident during a Pack Holiday that deeply affected them all, and in some cases ruined their friendships.

Now they are all grown up women and Brown Owl has just died leaving them all letters. The lives of these girls have gone off at different tangents and they have not all turned out as might have been predicted. The story uses flashbacks to the past and on-going present developments to reveal what happened to them all and resolve some of the issues they live with.

The central character, Lucy, was Brown Owl’s daughter and she feels strongly that she has not lived up to her mother’s hopes and expectations of her. Lucy’s marriage is falling apart and she is still longing to find out about the Father she idolises, but never actually really knew. All this comes tumbling to the surface in the wake of her mother’s death and leaves Lucy trying to recover and decide what she wants from her life.

Lucy’s best friend Terri was also a Brownie and is now (she feels) the oldest virgin in Troughton. She has been the strong sensible one all her life and is training to be a Vicar, but losing Brown Owl, who was the Mother she always wanted sends her on a new journey of self-discovery. The other four women from the Pixie Six are more minor characters, but none-the-less interesting. The story uses them all to look at how women are affected by aging, getting married having children and losing those they love. Even getting fatter has its part in this tale! So much of the novel reflects how women relate to each other and in particular how we are affected by our mother/daughter relationships in both their good and bad points.

Verdict: I so enjoyed this book. It is well written and food for thought. It has humour and sadness, a bit of romance and best of all characters that held your attention. A great read.

[Sam Woodfield · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think it is safe to say that I'm not the target demographic for this novel and therefore I think I missed something that other readers may enjoy.
The story follows Lucy shortly after the death of her mother. Having lived her life as a doting daughter, wife and mother, her own mother death leaves her asking questions about both her past and her future, and meeting up with some old friends from the Brownies lead her on a journey of discovery.
The one thing about this novel that I did really like was the variety of charcters introduced through the other Brownies. Lucy is very meek and mild, Terri controlling to cover her own insecurities, Paula overweight and reclusive, and finally Chris, a successful business woman who suddenly finds herself bored. The combination of these characters and the interaction between them leads to some interest in this novel, and Harrisons exploration of all of their lives both past and present was my favourite thing about this novel.
What I felt was missing from this novel was an engaging plot. As I have already stated, I don't think I am quite the demographic for this novel. The main plot is about a surpressed mother finding that she can be her own woman and live her dream, and I therefore think it is mothers and housewives who may enjoy this book as they may find some elements of the novel familiar. However, for me this wasn't the case and so I found this a little ploddy and found some parts a real slog. I liked the way the novel flicked between past and present, but I don't think the connection with the Brownies is made enough of to really be central to the plot in the way it is. I therefore found this whole novel somewhat lacking.
That said, I do think this will appeal to some people who want an easy read maybe whilst lying on a beach. It didn't suit me though and I'm not sure I would seek out others like this again.

[Babs · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having previously read Old School Ties and The Starter Marriage by the same author, and having loved both of them, I was looking forward to reading Brown Owl's Guide to Life with anticipation.

However this book fails to live up to the standard of its predecessors.

The story is trite, and the characters are flat and two-dimensional. The story is focussed on Judith Collins and her life as a Brown Owl for the local troop of Brownies. Following her death she tries to reunite the "Pixies", the group her daughter Lucy had been part of in the Brownies. Reuniting the girls 30 years on from their initial gatherings, and following a "tragedy" that befell the group in their last year as Brownies, we pick up on the lives of the Pixies - Bethany, Terri, Paula and Chris as they get together with Lucy and solve their life crises.

The story is contrived and is staged to fit in with a check-list of elements Harrison has felt compelled to include. Marriage breakdown ... check! Re-discovery of oneself ... check! Skeletons in the closet ... check! Life affirming, sugary sweet, "wrap up all the ends nicely" ending ... check!

Overall this book reads like Harrison came up with the bare bones of an idea, failed to flesh it out, and submitted it for publication under pressure of a deadline.

[Sally906 · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1979 Judith was a Brown Owl – the leader of a Brownie Troop. Her own daughter,Lucy, was in the Pixie group. The other members of the group were Bethany, Terrie, Chris, Paula and, finally, Simonetta. Something big happened in the summer of 1979 and it had to do with Simonetta’s family.

Fast forward to the present day – and Judith has just died of cancer. Prior to her death, she sent letters out to all the members of the Pixies – to get together to cheer Lucy up. Not hard for Terrie, as she and Lucy have remained close. The girls are all in their 30′s now – and all are at a place in their life where big changes need to take place for them all to move on. This book looks at where each girl is at now in her life, and the changes they either put in place themselves, or are forced to make to survive. It is mostly Lucy’s story as she looks for meaning after the death of her mother.
I really enjoyed this book – wasn’t too keen on a previous Harrison book :Old School Ties. But I really loved this one.

[Helene Harrison · Rating 1 out of 5]

Review - Although there were six girls in the Pixies, we only really hear about four of them, with a couple of mentions of the fifth, and we never really find out what happened to the sixth, only that she vanished. It took me a while to get into Brown Owl's Guide to Life. It just seems as though the action takes a long time to get going. What is clever about Harrison's writing is that she alternates between the past and the present throughout the novel, although it sometimes isn't made clear who's voice she is speaking in. Not bad.

Genre? - Chic Lit / Romance / Drama

Characters? - Judith Henderson / Lucy Collins / Chris / Terri / Paula

Setting? - England

Series? - N/A

Recommend? - Maybe

Rating - 12/20

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I only picked this out because I was looking for something light to read, and I am a Brownie leader. I think based on this book I would personally read some of Kate Harrison's other books, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend her to others as I don't think it was that spectacular. I liked all the characters well enough, though they all had characteristics that became grating after a while. Lucy in particular I don't think was strong enough to be the main character as she was quite weak-willed despite attempts to made her stronger in the book.

[Maureen Vincent-Northam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brown Owl's Guide to Life sees Lucy Collins as its central character though the book tells the stories of the other friends who were Brownies together back in the 70s. Each of the girls were, and as adults still are, quite different and so the reader gets caught up a variety of stories and sees a change in each character by the end of the book; have to say my personal favourite was Paula. A very worthwhile read with some humour and some thought-provoking scenarios.

[Gwen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don''t generally read 'chic-lit' but this hammered through my scepticism and was a really good read. It's an eventful story of a woman who is orphaned in her mid 30s and the book follows her progress after that momentous event. Her mother (the parent who died at the start of the book) was a Brown Owl and it's the 'truisms' of the Brownies that guide the lead character on her journey. A sort of Shirley Valentine but with a few likable supporing characters. A good 'holiday' read.