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Things to Make and Mend
This long-awaited first novel from one of Scotland's most admired short story writers tells the story of Sally Tuttle and Rowena Cresswell, school friends whose lives were changed at the age of fifteen by a shocking event. Now in their late thirties, they are estranged, both single mothers, both haunted with memories of their intense friendship. Sally is an embroiderer, a needlewoman (""the homelier sister of Wonderwoman""), who works at In Stitches, a repairs shop in East Grinstead. When she wins an embroidery prize and is invited to a conference in Edinburgh to deliver an embroidery lecture, she has to leave her teenage daughter Pearl alone and step into a new role - lecturer, prize-winner. Rowena Cresswell is in Edinburgh too, helping her son move out of his student accommodation. This beautifully woven, perfectly pitched story of two women caught in the shadow of their teenage years will stay in the hearts of readers long after they put it down.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2007
3 people are currently reading
57 people want to read
About the author
Ruth Thomas
50 books4 followersLibrarian note: There is more than one author with this name in the Goodreads database.
Ruth Thomas is an English writer of novels and short stories.
Ruth Thomas is an English writer of novels and short stories.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
August 1, 2017
This is the story of two women who were great friends as girls in the UK, bonding over shared silliness in needlework class in school until the arrival of boys in their lives leads to a split. The story goes between their past and the present, where Sally is an embroidery specialist and has won a prize for her art and an invitation to present a lecture to a conference in Edinburgh. She feels very uncomfortable about it, feeling that she is nothing special, and she is also nervous about leaving her teenaged daughter on her own, even with supervision from her ex-husband. Rowena, by coincidence, is also in the city, helping her son move out of his living quarters after university. Their stories unwind in slow, but steady pace, stitching together what has been torn apart by hurt feelings, misunderstandings and the mistakes of youth.
August 27, 2012
I really enjoyed this book. Each chapter alternates between the two main female characters and tells you about their lives, how they were friends in the past and how events lead to their circumstances now. It is a fairly slow story, delving into their feelings but this in no way detracts from how good it is. A thoughtful story.
(Oh, and BTW it has an under current theme of sewing, embroidery and textiles, so if this is an interest of yours you will enjoy the story even more!)
(Oh, and BTW it has an under current theme of sewing, embroidery and textiles, so if this is an interest of yours you will enjoy the story even more!)
February 10, 2017
I actually quite enjoyed this book so I am surprised that it gets a lot of rather negative reviews here. I do agree that the ending was a tiny bit disappointing but all in all, I found it a good book. I also did not experience problems when the narrator changed.
To me, it was not a great book, but it did stand out a little. I liked the theme and I liked the way the story was told.
To me, it was not a great book, but it did stand out a little. I liked the theme and I liked the way the story was told.
May 7, 2021
This moves between the perspective of Sally and Rowena, best friends in high school, who had a falling out. They are adults when the book begins and we get flash backs and the same events from different points of view as the story unfolds.
I don’t consider it a spoiler to say, as soon as I started reading I knew the BFFs would have a falling out and that by the book’s end, they would be together again, most people reading would quickly form the same conclusion. The thing was I really didn’t care. None of the characters are interesting or compelling.
There is a lot of detail about embroidery as Sally is an “award winning needlewoman”, but I think this falls flat. She has a compulsion to embroider, it is her security blanket. She is described as prolific but I never got a sense of passion about it. She does it for refuge, for peace of mind but not pure enjoyment. I didn’t like the way it was presented, as I think the author intends us to share a love of embroidery or handicrafts, but it was belittled at every turn, as if it wasn’t important and Sally hadn’t actually achieved much.
The smallness of her life was not celebrated but made plain and dull, lack lustre – I think unintentionally and I really resented that. There are many better books to read about the power of friendship and misunderstandings and bridges mended.
I don’t consider it a spoiler to say, as soon as I started reading I knew the BFFs would have a falling out and that by the book’s end, they would be together again, most people reading would quickly form the same conclusion. The thing was I really didn’t care. None of the characters are interesting or compelling.
There is a lot of detail about embroidery as Sally is an “award winning needlewoman”, but I think this falls flat. She has a compulsion to embroider, it is her security blanket. She is described as prolific but I never got a sense of passion about it. She does it for refuge, for peace of mind but not pure enjoyment. I didn’t like the way it was presented, as I think the author intends us to share a love of embroidery or handicrafts, but it was belittled at every turn, as if it wasn’t important and Sally hadn’t actually achieved much.
The smallness of her life was not celebrated but made plain and dull, lack lustre – I think unintentionally and I really resented that. There are many better books to read about the power of friendship and misunderstandings and bridges mended.
September 3, 2017
Two childhood friends going their own way after school years one married and successful in her career and the other one who has just won a needlework competition is happy in her simple job repairing clothing etc. Fate decides that this two will meet once again and will this be possible to go back in time when they were once best friends?
August 13, 2023
This book was better than I thought it would be and it is ideal for those old enough to understand how quickly you go from high school to your 40's. I am not sure I understood what happened in the end, but maybe that was the point? What happens in the past doesn't really matter? Or maybe I just didn't pay enough attention.
January 14, 2009
Guh, where to start with this book. Something about it originally reminded me of Sandra Dallas's book Alice's Tulips, but not as good.
It's the separate stories of two women, now in their 40s, who were best friends in their teens and had a falling out. It's told very oddly, starting out in 3rd person with the main character, Sally, and then switches every now and then to 1st person narrative with her old friend Rowena, who oddly enough doesn't seem like the main character (even though she gets the 1st person narrative treatment).
The story progression is very slow, which could be irritating, but since it's a story that mentions a lot of embroidery, it's almost as if it's laid down methodically, stitch by stitch, on purpose. I love the idea of this and the attention to needlework, but the characters still go bumbling along. It didn't feel to me that there was much character growth and the scene you wait for the entire book gets dismissed in two sentences.
The ending wasn't much more telling... there is some alluding to the biblical characters Mary and Martha, but the relationship is never explained for readers who aren't already versed on the biblical story.
It was a good story overall, and like a piece of methodically laid artwork, I was anticipating being able to see how each stitch comes together in the end to make this amazingly whole and connected scene, but it doesn't quite get there.
It's the separate stories of two women, now in their 40s, who were best friends in their teens and had a falling out. It's told very oddly, starting out in 3rd person with the main character, Sally, and then switches every now and then to 1st person narrative with her old friend Rowena, who oddly enough doesn't seem like the main character (even though she gets the 1st person narrative treatment).
The story progression is very slow, which could be irritating, but since it's a story that mentions a lot of embroidery, it's almost as if it's laid down methodically, stitch by stitch, on purpose. I love the idea of this and the attention to needlework, but the characters still go bumbling along. It didn't feel to me that there was much character growth and the scene you wait for the entire book gets dismissed in two sentences.
The ending wasn't much more telling... there is some alluding to the biblical characters Mary and Martha, but the relationship is never explained for readers who aren't already versed on the biblical story.
It was a good story overall, and like a piece of methodically laid artwork, I was anticipating being able to see how each stitch comes together in the end to make this amazingly whole and connected scene, but it doesn't quite get there.
January 30, 2011
This book rambled it's way through to the end.It was also quite hard to follow who was 'talking' in the beginning- as the 'narrative' changed with no obvious change of direction. I was expecting it to be a warm and cosy read. Two teenage girls lose touch after one falls pregnant at 15. Although they both messed about in the school needlework lessons, Sally later becomes an established embroiderer. They meet again about 30 years later at an embroidery event. It wasn't one of my favourite books.
July 25, 2007
A gentle, quiet, British, foggy exploration of life and friendship and mistakes, interlaced with needlework and Edinburgh settings. Doesn't gather up in a complete ending, lots of (pardon the pun) threads of plot left dangling and alluded to. It's rare I say a book could be longer - but in this case, it may have been nice.
June 11, 2009
A gentle-paced English story about intense friendship and the consequences of misunderstandings and assumptions. Loving all things craft, the underlying embroidery theme of the novel suited me perfectly.
February 5, 2012
"Vaardigheden voor meisjes" is de Nederlandse titel.
Dat zie je niet veel: een boek met sterke rol voor borduren / handwerken. Leest heel prettig, goed geschreven. Werd aangekondigd als humoristisch, maar waar hem dat dan in zit weet ik eigenlijk niet.
Dat zie je niet veel: een boek met sterke rol voor borduren / handwerken. Leest heel prettig, goed geschreven. Werd aangekondigd als humoristisch, maar waar hem dat dan in zit weet ik eigenlijk niet.
January 25, 2008
Pleasant, gentle novel about two women in their forties who used to be best friends at high school. Lots of interesting themes, many of them revolving around embroidery. Enjoyable.
December 8, 2008
Mildly entertaining.
It's entirely written in the third person and my brain keeps getting confused as to which of the two women are speaking.
It's entirely written in the third person and my brain keeps getting confused as to which of the two women are speaking.
June 3, 2009
The author changed the first person characters frequently and I found it hard to know who was "speaking." The story line seemed to go somewhere and yet it seemed unfinished.
February 15, 2011
book 17 of 2011 - aim 133 books for 2011
July 24, 2011
Very scattered writing ruined a nice little plot - Thomas could have made a bit more of the ending...
February 17, 2012
It was a nice little book. Not spectacular. Just nice.
January 5, 2013
Reading Group Selection.
February 26, 2014
Very hard going - the chapters are a little bit disjointed and just a really hard bok to follow.
Never managed to lumber my way to the end!
Never managed to lumber my way to the end!
June 1, 2012
OK book but a bit flat at the end.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews