The Decision by Penny Vincenzi

by Penny Vincenzi, Unknown Author

Paperback

About the author

Penny was nine years old when she embarked on her storytelling career. She wrote her own magazine called “Stories”, which she copied out three times on carbon paper and sold for two pence at school. So began a career in writing which has seen 7 million copies sold, and 17 bestselling novels.

After secretarial college, Penny worked as a junior secretary at Vogue and Tatler magazines, before moving to the Daily Mirror as personal assistant to Marje Proops, Britain's legendary agony aunt.
Marje encouraged her to write, and she became fashion editor and beauty writer at the Mirror, working for the women's editor in what was irreverently known as the "fragrant department". Penny’s journalistic career as a celebrated writer and columnist spanned several decades working for many of the leading newspapers and magazines of the time.
She once asked bestselling British author Jilly Cooper for advice on writing a novel while interviewing her for a magazine profile. Jilly put Penny in touch with her own agent, who promptly auctioned off her (then unwritten) first novel. It was quickly snapped up and the rest, as they say, is history.
Penny died in 2018. She was the proud and much-loved mother of four equally proud daughters, and grandmother to nine grandchildren.

Reviews

[Patricia · Rating 4.75 out of 5]

This is a monster of a book at over 800 pages long! It is worth the read though - it certainly keeps the reader turning the pages right through to the end.

The story is compellingly true to life, following the dream meeting of two people and their fairy tale romance and marriage. The reader follows their story along with their interactions with other people and we see the lives of all these characters change as time passes.

All of the characters are extremely well thought out and could almost have been drawn from people out in the real world. Their daily lives are completely believable and the pages turn as we seek to learn their fates.

The author has researched the story settings well too and the reader is there with the characters following their actions as it happens. From the streets of London, a remote ageing house in the country, to the glamour of The Opera in Italy and a small Greek island that offers complete relaxation they all come alive with the characters stories playing out.

As I said at the beginning this is a huge book but it contains a huge story that draws the reader in and you live and breathe every event along with the characters through births, deaths and everything in between!

I definitely recommend this book to everyone who loves a good family saga.

I own a softback copy of this book.

[Miriam Elliot · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow that covered some pretty serious issues. Made me quite cross at times.