The Secrets She Keeps

by Helen Cross

Nineteen-year-old John has been plucked from his small-time London life to be the famous Misty Moore's nanny while she hides out - post-pregnancy - in a crumbling mansion in Wychwood, in deepest Yorkshire. He is dazzled by his change of fortune, by Misty's impossible breasts and most of all by the heartbreaking Hepsie Vine, who is mysteriously bound to Misty. But there's more to his job than just glamour and decadence. For the village of Wychwood comes with the dank trace of secrets and Misty, of course, has plenty of her own...

288 pages, Paperback

First published February 27, 2006

About the author

Helen Cross (born 1967) is an English author.

She was raised in East Yorkshire and educated at Goldsmiths, University of London (BA) and the University of East Anglia (MA, 1998).

Cross's first novel, My Summer of Love, was published in 2001 and was the winner of a Betty Trask Award in 2002. It was made into an acclaimed film directed by Paweł Pawlikowski and starring Emily Blunt and Nathalie Press. She also wrote The Secrets She Keeps, published in 2005. These two books are set in Yorkshire. Her third and latest novel, Spilt Milk, Black Coffee, was published in 2009..

Helen Cross lives in Birmingham with her husband Andy, and her two daughters, Kendra and Cleo. She tutors at the Arvon centre.

- wikipedia

Reviews

[Jayne Charles · Rating 2 out of 5]

I dived into this with such high hopes. Another of the author's works is my fave read of the year so far. This one however started out with a bizarre set-up, and while I waited patiently for it to sort itself out, I had to admit one hundred or so pages in that it was unlikely to do so. Central to the story is 19 year-old sandwich maker John who is engaged as nanny for two young children - one a baby only a few weeks old. Presumably, I thought, he's got some kind of experience in childcare. But no, no, insists the book, he's a sandwich maker. And he hasn't got a clue either why he got the job offer.

It was as though this central issue was on one end of a bungee rope and I was on the other. Every time I tried to get into the story I was jerked back to this bit of improbable daftness, which by association made the rest of it daft too. John appears to fancy everything in a skirt, including his employer who has big tits and has in the past been some kind of model or actress or something like that, but can be (and is) mistaken for an old woman. So in my head she had Jordan's body and Helen Mirren's head, and frankly that was daft too.

One thing is undeniable: the author is a whizz with words. The text is lyrical and imaginative, and in places there are hints of profundity. But for me the scenario was too odd, the twists too guessable, and the moral of the story - always assuming I didn't miss a deeper one - too mundane.

[shauna · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was just confused most of the time

[Nathalie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book because I quite liked the movie My Summer of Love which was based on Helen Cross' first novel and because I wanted an easy read for Christmas. It is the story of John, a 19-year old boy who gets hired as a nanny by the rich, famous and lonely Misty Moore. For some reasons (which he never really questions) everybody (that is John, Misty Moore, a newborn baby and a small troubled semi-orphaned boy called Mouse) has to live in a shabby small-town mansion and John is the only help around to look after the children and to take care of the house. There is obviously a mystery at stake but the narrator is so thunderstruck to live with a celebrity that he forgets to unravel the mistery until the last third of the book (at which point you have figured things out for yourself). Instead he shares his thoughts about the weird and bewitching world of the rich and famous and how money and power over the mundane makes it worthwhile to be lonely and to lose most of your humanity. In the end it is a very cold book peopled with seen-from-a-distance drama queen-like characters whom it is hard to sympathize with. Quite a disappointing read.

[Mew · Rating 1 out of 5]

dull...ridiculous...boring

[Gwen · Rating 2 out of 5]

The cover is a lot better than the story. Not terrifically impressed.

[Guy Salvidge · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the worst kind of tosh from the author of the far superior My Summer of Love. Really, I'd be tempted to give this one star but for the fact that I know Cross can do far better than this.

[Ashley Johnston · Rating 1 out of 5]

Could not finish this book. I could not make sense of the writing or story line, so strange.

[Mills · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although The Secrets She Keeps doesn't stand out in any way, I don't think it's bad enough to merit a not-even-2.5 star average rating. It's not bad at all. It doesn't really go anywhere and is more ponderings on the nature of wealth and fame than novel or story, but it is entertaining enough. If you can get past the incredulity that any of the plot events would ever happen, Hepsie's family and the air of trailer-trash mystique/magic that is woven around them are really quite fascinating and I would like to see some more of them. I still haven't figured out what compelled me to buy The Secrets, but I did enjoy the read.