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The Road to Cromer Pier
Janet’s first love arrives out of the blue after thirty years. Those were simpler times for them both. Sunny childhood beach holidays, fish and chips and big copper pennies clunking into one armed bandits.
The Wells family has run the Cromer Pier Summertime Special Show for generations. But it’s now 2009 and the recession is biting hard. Owner Janet Wells and daughter Karen are facing an uncertain future. The show must go on, and Janet gambles on a fading talent show star. But both the star and the other cast members have their demons. This is a story of love, loyalty and luvvies. The road to Cromer Pier might be the end of their careers, or it might just be a new beginning.
The Wells family has run the Cromer Pier Summertime Special Show for generations. But it’s now 2009 and the recession is biting hard. Owner Janet Wells and daughter Karen are facing an uncertain future. The show must go on, and Janet gambles on a fading talent show star. But both the star and the other cast members have their demons. This is a story of love, loyalty and luvvies. The road to Cromer Pier might be the end of their careers, or it might just be a new beginning.
324 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 9, 2019
9 people are currently reading
25 people want to read
About the author
Martin Gore
3 books5 followersI am an Accountant by background, who semi-retired to explore my love of creative writing. In my career I held Board level jobs for over twenty five years, in private, public and third sector organisations. I was born in Coventry, a city then dominated by the car industry and high volume manufacturing. Jaguar, Triumph, Talbot, Rolls Royce, Courtaulds, Massey Ferguson were the major employers, to name but a few.
When I was nine year’s old I told my long suffering mother that as I liked English composition and drama I was going to be a Playwright. She told me that I should work hard at school and get a proper job. She was right of course.
I started as an Office Junior at Jaguar in 1973 at eleven pounds sixty four a week. I thus grew up in the strike torn, class divided seventies. Notably in the 1974 miners strike we were hit by the three day week and worked with lighting from a generator. The Jaguar factory which employed thousands of people in Coventry is now a building site, and the office in the Triumph factory to which I later transferred is now a MacDonald’s.
I have lived in the midlands, the south of England, and now in rural East Yorkshire with Sandra, my wife of thirty six years. I suppose that as such I have a reasonable perspective on our current difficulties as a nation. I take the view that our current austerity is a consequence of our collective failings in the past rather than a policy, and that the lessons of our history shouldn't be lost.
We should have less class division in our country, which although less of a factor today still exists in too many areas of life. I think it is fair to say that my own journey from Office Junior to Boardroom could not have happened in my father’s generation, so with every generation we seem to make progress.
But in the seventies I also saw at first hand the damage done by politically driven Trade Unions and ineffectual class ridden management. This division wiped out much of UK manufacturing which is in my view the root cause of the austerity we know today. I thought it important to capture this in a fiction novel, and Pen Pals is the result.
The opportunity to rekindle my interest in writing came in 2009, when I wrote my first pantomime, Cinderella, for my home group, the Walkington Pantomime Players. I have now written eight. I love theatre, particularly musical theatre, and completed the Hull Truck Theatre Playwrite course in 2010. My first play, a comedy called He's Behind You, had its first highly successful showing in January 2016, so I intend to move forward in all three creative areas.
I’m an old fashioned writer I guess. I want you to laugh and to cry. I want you to feel that my stories have a beginning, a middle, and a satisfactory ending. When I write I seem to disappear into another world, and become completely self absorbed. It’s a great feeling.
When I was nine year’s old I told my long suffering mother that as I liked English composition and drama I was going to be a Playwright. She told me that I should work hard at school and get a proper job. She was right of course.
I started as an Office Junior at Jaguar in 1973 at eleven pounds sixty four a week. I thus grew up in the strike torn, class divided seventies. Notably in the 1974 miners strike we were hit by the three day week and worked with lighting from a generator. The Jaguar factory which employed thousands of people in Coventry is now a building site, and the office in the Triumph factory to which I later transferred is now a MacDonald’s.
I have lived in the midlands, the south of England, and now in rural East Yorkshire with Sandra, my wife of thirty six years. I suppose that as such I have a reasonable perspective on our current difficulties as a nation. I take the view that our current austerity is a consequence of our collective failings in the past rather than a policy, and that the lessons of our history shouldn't be lost.
We should have less class division in our country, which although less of a factor today still exists in too many areas of life. I think it is fair to say that my own journey from Office Junior to Boardroom could not have happened in my father’s generation, so with every generation we seem to make progress.
But in the seventies I also saw at first hand the damage done by politically driven Trade Unions and ineffectual class ridden management. This division wiped out much of UK manufacturing which is in my view the root cause of the austerity we know today. I thought it important to capture this in a fiction novel, and Pen Pals is the result.
The opportunity to rekindle my interest in writing came in 2009, when I wrote my first pantomime, Cinderella, for my home group, the Walkington Pantomime Players. I have now written eight. I love theatre, particularly musical theatre, and completed the Hull Truck Theatre Playwrite course in 2010. My first play, a comedy called He's Behind You, had its first highly successful showing in January 2016, so I intend to move forward in all three creative areas.
I’m an old fashioned writer I guess. I want you to laugh and to cry. I want you to feel that my stories have a beginning, a middle, and a satisfactory ending. When I write I seem to disappear into another world, and become completely self absorbed. It’s a great feeling.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
July 6, 2019
Favorite Quotes:
Tourists. Bloody tourists. I’ve been doing this show for 30-odd years and I swear they get worse. That child today. I swear he’s been to an Al-Qaeda training camp. ADHD his parents said.
‘You know she has a reputation for the drink. What were you thinking of?’ ‘I know she does, but her agent insisted she had dried out.’ Karen laughed. ‘Let’s just say that she might have been dry at one time, but the tide came in this morning.’
The fat lady wasn’t singing, but she was certainly warming up. I should have known. In denial, I guess.
My Review:
This was a departure from my typical reading selections and I enjoyed the change and rerouting of my thought patterns, which is almost always a good thing. Mr. Gore has published but one previous book and I hope he continues to peck away at his keyboard, as he seems to have quite a knack for storytelling. Written in the third-person omniscient POV, the storylines were active, eventful, and abundant with a diverse and quirky cast of unusual and beleaguered characters. The subplots unfolded gradually and carefully with a steady rise in tension, which kept my curiosity primed.
The main timeline involved a period of struggle for the venerable yet aged theater as well as the besieged performers who seemed to be beset in all areas – marital, financial, personal, and professional. England was in the midst of a devastating recession and the theater was in danger of being shuttered, leading to the mode of the day being to scramble and pull together for one last chance, and doing so on hope and a shoestring.
I found one new addition for my Brit Word List with stitch up – which is British informal for being framed or set up.
Tourists. Bloody tourists. I’ve been doing this show for 30-odd years and I swear they get worse. That child today. I swear he’s been to an Al-Qaeda training camp. ADHD his parents said.
‘You know she has a reputation for the drink. What were you thinking of?’ ‘I know she does, but her agent insisted she had dried out.’ Karen laughed. ‘Let’s just say that she might have been dry at one time, but the tide came in this morning.’
The fat lady wasn’t singing, but she was certainly warming up. I should have known. In denial, I guess.
My Review:
This was a departure from my typical reading selections and I enjoyed the change and rerouting of my thought patterns, which is almost always a good thing. Mr. Gore has published but one previous book and I hope he continues to peck away at his keyboard, as he seems to have quite a knack for storytelling. Written in the third-person omniscient POV, the storylines were active, eventful, and abundant with a diverse and quirky cast of unusual and beleaguered characters. The subplots unfolded gradually and carefully with a steady rise in tension, which kept my curiosity primed.
The main timeline involved a period of struggle for the venerable yet aged theater as well as the besieged performers who seemed to be beset in all areas – marital, financial, personal, and professional. England was in the midst of a devastating recession and the theater was in danger of being shuttered, leading to the mode of the day being to scramble and pull together for one last chance, and doing so on hope and a shoestring.
I found one new addition for my Brit Word List with stitch up – which is British informal for being framed or set up.
July 2, 2019
I had a feeling going into The Road to Cromer Pier that I would connect with the story, and I was not wrong. A theatre brat myself, I miss the days when I got to live and breathe musicals, and when life revolved around rehearsals and performances. That this novel also had a coastal setting only increased it’s worth. If it had come with a barista delivering lattes and chocolate croissants every three chapters, it could not have been more perfectly designed for my tastes.
But preferences alone are not enough. The author must also demonstrate talent and craft, and Martin Gore has done both with this book. I’m new to his writing, and I’m not British, but I’ve read enough novels set in the UK that they never feel foreign to me. Rather, his storytelling was so immersive that I was completely engaged from the first page to the last.
Obviously, my main focus was on Janet and her story, because she is the glue that keeps the narrative flowing, but every character was compelling and dimensional and each one felt like someone I might have encountered doing improv or summer stock or even as a resident ingenue at a theatre camp when I was in high school.
As well, the Show itself felt like a character in its own right, and I loved that about Gore’s work. Having grown up on the periphery of several family businesses, including a neighborhood diner, I know how much they take on a life and power of their own, and he showed that so well.
The Road to Cromer Pier is no fluffy summer read, but a family drama with equal parts heartbreak and hearty laughter and I highly recommend it.
Goes well with Cracker Jacks, the old-style kind that still have a decent toy surprise, not because they have anything to do with the story, but because they fit the mood of it.
But preferences alone are not enough. The author must also demonstrate talent and craft, and Martin Gore has done both with this book. I’m new to his writing, and I’m not British, but I’ve read enough novels set in the UK that they never feel foreign to me. Rather, his storytelling was so immersive that I was completely engaged from the first page to the last.
Obviously, my main focus was on Janet and her story, because she is the glue that keeps the narrative flowing, but every character was compelling and dimensional and each one felt like someone I might have encountered doing improv or summer stock or even as a resident ingenue at a theatre camp when I was in high school.
As well, the Show itself felt like a character in its own right, and I loved that about Gore’s work. Having grown up on the periphery of several family businesses, including a neighborhood diner, I know how much they take on a life and power of their own, and he showed that so well.
The Road to Cromer Pier is no fluffy summer read, but a family drama with equal parts heartbreak and hearty laughter and I highly recommend it.
Goes well with Cracker Jacks, the old-style kind that still have a decent toy surprise, not because they have anything to do with the story, but because they fit the mood of it.
July 7, 2019
What a thoughtful and lovely book about the life at the Pier Cromer Theatre!
This story is such a wonderful tale about how life at the Pier Cromer Theatre in the past was.
When the economy is in a recession and many businesses have problems we got to know Les and Janet and their artists. When Janet has no other choice she has to make a deal to save her precious place but will this really be the end for the shows?
I loved the story because the realistic characters with good attitudes and their mistakes or unexpected things and events make me connect to it. The way the author creates an interesting story with well-developed key players and their efforts to keep following their dreams are touching and I am curious if this stops with this book. This is a fiction book but The Pier Theathre is real and the writer has had interviews with the cast of this show and will go and see their Summer Show this year. The Pier was a very special place for everyone and after reading this book I would love to read the next one with pleasure.
****
This story is such a wonderful tale about how life at the Pier Cromer Theatre in the past was.
When the economy is in a recession and many businesses have problems we got to know Les and Janet and their artists. When Janet has no other choice she has to make a deal to save her precious place but will this really be the end for the shows?
I loved the story because the realistic characters with good attitudes and their mistakes or unexpected things and events make me connect to it. The way the author creates an interesting story with well-developed key players and their efforts to keep following their dreams are touching and I am curious if this stops with this book. This is a fiction book but The Pier Theathre is real and the writer has had interviews with the cast of this show and will go and see their Summer Show this year. The Pier was a very special place for everyone and after reading this book I would love to read the next one with pleasure.
****
November 16, 2020
The Road to Cromer Pier is a standalone novel by Martin Gore.
This book was a little slow to start with, but by the time I got to about a third of the way through I found myself thoroughly invested in the characters and their lives.
I loved the fact that the story revolved around the organising and production of a show in the building at the end of the pier. It brought back a lot of memories for me seeing shows in Blackpool with my daughter. There is just something special about seeing a show at the seaside.
Janet is the leaseholder of the building and every year they put on a fabulous seaside show. This year the show will still go on, but afterwards, unless she comes up with the funding she will lose her lease and the place will be turned into a bingo hall. In the hope of selling a lot of tickets for the production, Janet recruits a former runner up in a TV talent show, a Welsh woman, Lauren Evans. The latter starts off being quite an unlikeable character but as time goes on her character really develops and you grow to love her.
We also have the bad guy of the story, Mr Pemrose, he is an adulterer and he is also Janet's landlord. He badly wants her to forfeit on the building lease because he wants it. He seems to want to buy up all of the businesses in their small town.
We also have Ben and Carol, a married couple whose marriage is on the rocks. Len, MC and comedian, Betty a dancer who drinks too much, Karen, a dancer and Janet's daughter, a Polish magician, and Miriam, the hard done by wife of Lionel Pemrose, all of who find themselves involved with this very last important event of the season. And we cannot forget dear 73-year-old Cyril, the Punch and Judy man. He has been doing the puppet show on the pier for 30 years, but this year was to be his last as Pemrose had tripled the rent he had to pay for his spot. Each and every one of these characters has their own story, some more emotional than others, but all captivating to read. Or in my case 'listen' to.
I listened to the audiobook of The Road to Cromer Pier. It's narrator Penny Scott-Andrews did a fabulous job of performing the character's voices. The varied accents were done beautifully, I particularly liked her Welsh accent, that of Lauren Evans. I will admit that at the start of the book the narrator's normal reading voice, when she wasn't in character, reminded me very much of somebody reading a child's storybook. It was a bit off-putting when a sad moment was occurring and it was told in a bubbly cheerful voice. BUT, that said, by the time I was more used to it, plus appreciated just how good her characterisations were, I soon didn't mind.
The Road to Cromer Pier was a real pleasure to listen to and I am happy to recommend it.
This book was a little slow to start with, but by the time I got to about a third of the way through I found myself thoroughly invested in the characters and their lives.
I loved the fact that the story revolved around the organising and production of a show in the building at the end of the pier. It brought back a lot of memories for me seeing shows in Blackpool with my daughter. There is just something special about seeing a show at the seaside.
Janet is the leaseholder of the building and every year they put on a fabulous seaside show. This year the show will still go on, but afterwards, unless she comes up with the funding she will lose her lease and the place will be turned into a bingo hall. In the hope of selling a lot of tickets for the production, Janet recruits a former runner up in a TV talent show, a Welsh woman, Lauren Evans. The latter starts off being quite an unlikeable character but as time goes on her character really develops and you grow to love her.
We also have the bad guy of the story, Mr Pemrose, he is an adulterer and he is also Janet's landlord. He badly wants her to forfeit on the building lease because he wants it. He seems to want to buy up all of the businesses in their small town.
We also have Ben and Carol, a married couple whose marriage is on the rocks. Len, MC and comedian, Betty a dancer who drinks too much, Karen, a dancer and Janet's daughter, a Polish magician, and Miriam, the hard done by wife of Lionel Pemrose, all of who find themselves involved with this very last important event of the season. And we cannot forget dear 73-year-old Cyril, the Punch and Judy man. He has been doing the puppet show on the pier for 30 years, but this year was to be his last as Pemrose had tripled the rent he had to pay for his spot. Each and every one of these characters has their own story, some more emotional than others, but all captivating to read. Or in my case 'listen' to.
I listened to the audiobook of The Road to Cromer Pier. It's narrator Penny Scott-Andrews did a fabulous job of performing the character's voices. The varied accents were done beautifully, I particularly liked her Welsh accent, that of Lauren Evans. I will admit that at the start of the book the narrator's normal reading voice, when she wasn't in character, reminded me very much of somebody reading a child's storybook. It was a bit off-putting when a sad moment was occurring and it was told in a bubbly cheerful voice. BUT, that said, by the time I was more used to it, plus appreciated just how good her characterisations were, I soon didn't mind.
The Road to Cromer Pier was a real pleasure to listen to and I am happy to recommend it.
November 22, 2020
Martin Gore’s second novel is, I think, going to divide opinion. If you share his characters’ affection for, and nostalgia of, the great seaside holidays of the past in places like Cromer and Hastings and Bracklesham Bay, then you will adore this book.
If, like many others, you think the reason that these places are dying a slow, strangulated death is because what they offer is over priced, miserably devoid of entertainment and plasticy crap, then you’ll find it hard to engage much with the central dilemma of whether the show will go on and the theatre saved. I grew up in one. I know they don’t need to be saved.
What Gore creates extremely successfully here is a world. This is a town where celebrities on the way up or the way down converge to put on a show which keeps the end of the pier theatre going.
Gore populates this world like a soap opera: the stand up comedian with a dark secret, the former talent show starlet struggling to put together a life and a career, the mother and daughter team holding the thing to together with sticky tape and glue all the while attempting to evade the shark like attentions of local worthy, and seedy adulterous businessman, Lionel Penrose.
Into this cast of characters as shop soiled and seedy as the seafront town they inexplicably want to keep going, washes up disgraced former football manager on the run from his own troubles and a lover of the head strong Janet, who has some secrets of her own.
This is a novel which walks a bit of a tight rope as I mentioned. If you like the characters, then the ensemble nature – cleverly structured to the mirror the type of show they are building up to at the end of the pier – will allow you to swoop in and out of their stories to satisfy your curiosity. However, this becomes a high wire act as a reader can struggle to stay engaged if there is not a clear protagonist, or at least pair of protagonists to hold on to.
The version I reviewed was an audiobook and this lead to one or two other issues which might not be such and issue in print.
Certainly I once read that a writer should avoid having characters whose names begin with the same letters. I must confess that at times I struggled with Carol and Karen but this somewhat went into overdrive when, in such a large cast, there is a Lec, a Les, a Lauren and a Lionel. I ended up gravitating to the Paul and Janet story just because I could remember who the hell they were.
Additionally, the narration of Penny Scott-Andrews is variable. She renders the Welsh lilt of Lauren with beautiful precision and does a very sleazy Lionel too. But it does grate when a novel about showbusiness has a narrator who pronounces Captain Mainwaring as Captain Main-Wearing. Dad’s Army isn’t that obscure a reference even these days, surely?
Overall, however, I enjoyed diving into the underbelly of a failing theatrical enterprise and the setting was enhanced by rooting the piece so firmly against the backdrop of the 2008 financial crash. This is light, simple story telling, well told and engaging the big themes in life. I rather hope Mr Gore gets back on the Road to Cromer Pier in future.
If, like many others, you think the reason that these places are dying a slow, strangulated death is because what they offer is over priced, miserably devoid of entertainment and plasticy crap, then you’ll find it hard to engage much with the central dilemma of whether the show will go on and the theatre saved. I grew up in one. I know they don’t need to be saved.
What Gore creates extremely successfully here is a world. This is a town where celebrities on the way up or the way down converge to put on a show which keeps the end of the pier theatre going.
Gore populates this world like a soap opera: the stand up comedian with a dark secret, the former talent show starlet struggling to put together a life and a career, the mother and daughter team holding the thing to together with sticky tape and glue all the while attempting to evade the shark like attentions of local worthy, and seedy adulterous businessman, Lionel Penrose.
Into this cast of characters as shop soiled and seedy as the seafront town they inexplicably want to keep going, washes up disgraced former football manager on the run from his own troubles and a lover of the head strong Janet, who has some secrets of her own.
This is a novel which walks a bit of a tight rope as I mentioned. If you like the characters, then the ensemble nature – cleverly structured to the mirror the type of show they are building up to at the end of the pier – will allow you to swoop in and out of their stories to satisfy your curiosity. However, this becomes a high wire act as a reader can struggle to stay engaged if there is not a clear protagonist, or at least pair of protagonists to hold on to.
The version I reviewed was an audiobook and this lead to one or two other issues which might not be such and issue in print.
Certainly I once read that a writer should avoid having characters whose names begin with the same letters. I must confess that at times I struggled with Carol and Karen but this somewhat went into overdrive when, in such a large cast, there is a Lec, a Les, a Lauren and a Lionel. I ended up gravitating to the Paul and Janet story just because I could remember who the hell they were.
Additionally, the narration of Penny Scott-Andrews is variable. She renders the Welsh lilt of Lauren with beautiful precision and does a very sleazy Lionel too. But it does grate when a novel about showbusiness has a narrator who pronounces Captain Mainwaring as Captain Main-Wearing. Dad’s Army isn’t that obscure a reference even these days, surely?
Overall, however, I enjoyed diving into the underbelly of a failing theatrical enterprise and the setting was enhanced by rooting the piece so firmly against the backdrop of the 2008 financial crash. This is light, simple story telling, well told and engaging the big themes in life. I rather hope Mr Gore gets back on the Road to Cromer Pier in future.
November 22, 2020
I love audiobooks, and this is a book that truly shines when read aloud! I wasn’t sure what sort of story The Road to Cromer Pier would be. Yeah, the blurb says it has lost love rekindled, and a theater to save, but just a chapter or two in, and you realize that the blurb didn’t scratch the surface, merely grazed it! OMG. This is definitely my Feel Good™ book for November!
As an American, I have to provide some context. The Cromer Pier Theatre is a real place. It features a live variety show every year, with a mix of singers, dancers, acrobats, comedians and magicians. This is one of the few surviving examples of the long history of both music hall and vaudeville entertaining. In the modern age, live acts have transitioned to television (American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, ect.).
The cast of characters in this book is huge, and I’m in awe of the narrator, Penny Scott-Andrew’s ability to give each one a distinctive voice! This ability made it incredibly easy to lose myself in the story and not worry about losing my place in the plot, which moves quickly. The cast is richly detailed, full-bodied in that each character is a person in their own right, even those who only show up for a chapter or two.
There are multiple subplots to the main, all interwoven in such a way to be absolutely believable and vital to the main story.
Main plot: Last season’s profits were down and rent is due on the Theatre’s lease. Janet Wells, owner of the Theatre is desperate to save the last of the seaside variety shows, but due to the recession, all the banks are refusing her. Lionel Primrose, who owns most of the businesses in town wants the Theatre building to become a tourist trap Bingo Hall.
Subplot 1: Paul Walker has had a horrible day, having been fired from his job and finding his wife with another man. Now on the run from the police, he’s run away to Cromer Pier, a place full of childhood memories and his first love.
Subplot 2: Lauren Evans is an ex-talent show star that had a diva attitude and a lack of practical skills. She comes to Cromer Pier running from her problems.
I cannot give any more details without entirely ruining the entire book. I can say that The Road to Cromer Pier has made me feel as though I have visited Cromer a hundred times, and was watching all the drama unfold for myself! A wonderful read, I can’t wait to see what Martin Gore writes next!
Note: This novel covers a few sensitive topics, and takes place during England’s 2008 Recession.
TW/CW: adultery, pregnancy loss, drug and alcohol abuse, battery, bankruptcy
As an American, I have to provide some context. The Cromer Pier Theatre is a real place. It features a live variety show every year, with a mix of singers, dancers, acrobats, comedians and magicians. This is one of the few surviving examples of the long history of both music hall and vaudeville entertaining. In the modern age, live acts have transitioned to television (American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, ect.).
The cast of characters in this book is huge, and I’m in awe of the narrator, Penny Scott-Andrew’s ability to give each one a distinctive voice! This ability made it incredibly easy to lose myself in the story and not worry about losing my place in the plot, which moves quickly. The cast is richly detailed, full-bodied in that each character is a person in their own right, even those who only show up for a chapter or two.
There are multiple subplots to the main, all interwoven in such a way to be absolutely believable and vital to the main story.
Main plot: Last season’s profits were down and rent is due on the Theatre’s lease. Janet Wells, owner of the Theatre is desperate to save the last of the seaside variety shows, but due to the recession, all the banks are refusing her. Lionel Primrose, who owns most of the businesses in town wants the Theatre building to become a tourist trap Bingo Hall.
Subplot 1: Paul Walker has had a horrible day, having been fired from his job and finding his wife with another man. Now on the run from the police, he’s run away to Cromer Pier, a place full of childhood memories and his first love.
Subplot 2: Lauren Evans is an ex-talent show star that had a diva attitude and a lack of practical skills. She comes to Cromer Pier running from her problems.
I cannot give any more details without entirely ruining the entire book. I can say that The Road to Cromer Pier has made me feel as though I have visited Cromer a hundred times, and was watching all the drama unfold for myself! A wonderful read, I can’t wait to see what Martin Gore writes next!
Note: This novel covers a few sensitive topics, and takes place during England’s 2008 Recession.
TW/CW: adultery, pregnancy loss, drug and alcohol abuse, battery, bankruptcy
November 20, 2020
What a charming tale of love, friendship, and new beginnings!
Easy on the ear and heart-warmingly nostalgic, this is a tale of a good old fashioned end-of-the-pier theatre, in a good old fashioned sea-side town, that takes you right back to the sunny summer days of childhood, but mixes in more than a few interesting modern twists along the way.
Set a year after the banking crises of 2008, this is a seaside town struggling with survival in a recession - especially the hotel and entertainment sectors - and Martin Gore gives us a pretty realistic glimpse of the struggles a little town like Cromer was dealing with at this time.
Forced to make some pretty drastic cutbacks, our theatre gang is made up of a slightly different blend than normal this year, and this introduces some fun characters to the mix - veteran luvvies have to brush shoulders with down on their luck former stars, faded dancing girls, keen young wannabes and haphazard magical performers to try to make ends meet, and keep the wolf from the door. And the wolf in question proves to be of a particularly nasty businessman variety, intent on expanding his empire and shortening the odds to his advantage by less than honest means.
I enjoyed every single character here, and they all had their part to play in the overall scheme of things - whether they be a good, bad, or a very realistic mix of the two - and I loved getting to know them all. I was also very impressed with the way Penny Scott-Andrews handled narrating all the different accents, especially since there was such a range of characters of disparate ages and from so many different locations around the country!
The threads of the tale played out well, for the most part, and the ending and accompanying little twists were completely charming and warmed the cockles of my heart nicely. There are more than a few laughs in this story too, especially from the antics of the hapless Polish magician.
The Road To Cromer Pier is a lovely little tale of pulling together in adversity, helping each other through the hard times and finding a way to move on, which is absolutely perfect listening for the current topsy-turvy times.
Easy on the ear and heart-warmingly nostalgic, this is a tale of a good old fashioned end-of-the-pier theatre, in a good old fashioned sea-side town, that takes you right back to the sunny summer days of childhood, but mixes in more than a few interesting modern twists along the way.
Set a year after the banking crises of 2008, this is a seaside town struggling with survival in a recession - especially the hotel and entertainment sectors - and Martin Gore gives us a pretty realistic glimpse of the struggles a little town like Cromer was dealing with at this time.
Forced to make some pretty drastic cutbacks, our theatre gang is made up of a slightly different blend than normal this year, and this introduces some fun characters to the mix - veteran luvvies have to brush shoulders with down on their luck former stars, faded dancing girls, keen young wannabes and haphazard magical performers to try to make ends meet, and keep the wolf from the door. And the wolf in question proves to be of a particularly nasty businessman variety, intent on expanding his empire and shortening the odds to his advantage by less than honest means.
I enjoyed every single character here, and they all had their part to play in the overall scheme of things - whether they be a good, bad, or a very realistic mix of the two - and I loved getting to know them all. I was also very impressed with the way Penny Scott-Andrews handled narrating all the different accents, especially since there was such a range of characters of disparate ages and from so many different locations around the country!
The threads of the tale played out well, for the most part, and the ending and accompanying little twists were completely charming and warmed the cockles of my heart nicely. There are more than a few laughs in this story too, especially from the antics of the hapless Polish magician.
The Road To Cromer Pier is a lovely little tale of pulling together in adversity, helping each other through the hard times and finding a way to move on, which is absolutely perfect listening for the current topsy-turvy times.
June 29, 2019
This is the story of a struggling theater on the Norfolk coast of England.
The Wells family has owned the theater for generations, and Janet Wells is the current owner. They run a variety show, the Cromer Pier Summertime Special, every year, and it's always a success for them.
Now, though, they're in the second year of the Great Recession, and everyone is struggling. They can't afford the same level of performers they would normally be recruiting. Everyone on the permanent staff is taking a 5% salary cut, and the new hires for the show include a Polish magician whose performance and command of English are both spotty, and a talent show winner who has a great singing voice but has reached the end of her run of what she can do with that alone in he current market. But she's never danced, and for Cromer Pier she needs to learn.
Oh, and a local real estate vulture is determined to get ownership of the theater, have already acquired the rest of the pier. Also, we keep getting Just One More Character introduced.
I don't, as a general rule, object to lots of characters as such. Or to an ensemble cast.
But Gore kept snatching me away from one character to another, too quickly, and often it was to one less likable. Even the fairly likable ones, he made it hard for me to settle in and care about.
I was left feeling I was being bounced hither and yon, in pursuit of something other than a really good characters whose fate I cared about.
Altogether frustrating.
I just don't know. I may reread this book again in a few months. Right now, at this moment, I just can't give it another chance to engage me, and I had such hopes for it.
Sadly, not recommended.
I received a free electronic galley of this book from the publisher, and am reviewing it voluntarily.
The Wells family has owned the theater for generations, and Janet Wells is the current owner. They run a variety show, the Cromer Pier Summertime Special, every year, and it's always a success for them.
Now, though, they're in the second year of the Great Recession, and everyone is struggling. They can't afford the same level of performers they would normally be recruiting. Everyone on the permanent staff is taking a 5% salary cut, and the new hires for the show include a Polish magician whose performance and command of English are both spotty, and a talent show winner who has a great singing voice but has reached the end of her run of what she can do with that alone in he current market. But she's never danced, and for Cromer Pier she needs to learn.
Oh, and a local real estate vulture is determined to get ownership of the theater, have already acquired the rest of the pier. Also, we keep getting Just One More Character introduced.
I don't, as a general rule, object to lots of characters as such. Or to an ensemble cast.
But Gore kept snatching me away from one character to another, too quickly, and often it was to one less likable. Even the fairly likable ones, he made it hard for me to settle in and care about.
I was left feeling I was being bounced hither and yon, in pursuit of something other than a really good characters whose fate I cared about.
Altogether frustrating.
I just don't know. I may reread this book again in a few months. Right now, at this moment, I just can't give it another chance to engage me, and I had such hopes for it.
Sadly, not recommended.
I received a free electronic galley of this book from the publisher, and am reviewing it voluntarily.
November 22, 2020
Times are tough and the Wells family is about to lose the Cromer Pier Theatre which has been in their family for several years. The owner, Janet, is at her wits end trying to figure out a way to keep it rather than having to hand it over to the evil Pemrose.
The story was slow for me until I got about halfway through. Eventually, once I learned more about the characters and watched them grow, I finished the last half in one sitting. Lauren and Paul especially learned a lot about themselves, which is kind of interesting since they were the celebrities. Even the characters who seemed to have it all together, like Janet, really didn’t and I enjoyed watching them grow as well.
The Road to Cromer Pier is a well-written feel good book with a good ending.
The story was slow for me until I got about halfway through. Eventually, once I learned more about the characters and watched them grow, I finished the last half in one sitting. Lauren and Paul especially learned a lot about themselves, which is kind of interesting since they were the celebrities. Even the characters who seemed to have it all together, like Janet, really didn’t and I enjoyed watching them grow as well.
The Road to Cromer Pier is a well-written feel good book with a good ending.
July 17, 2021
This story is written so gracefully and I really enjoyed this book. I found the story a little slow at the beginning but definitely picks up pace. I loved all the characters and was nice seeing their character growing and developing further in the story. Another plus point I must say is the multiple subplots and how they were all tied together nicely in the story.
The Road to Cromer Pier is a beautiful story about family drama, coming together for each other, dealing with heartache and new beginning. Definitely recommend this book.
The Road to Cromer Pier is a beautiful story about family drama, coming together for each other, dealing with heartache and new beginning. Definitely recommend this book.
July 30, 2019
Excellent
Well worth reading ?and had the privilege of working on the pier within the theatre, I didn't want to put it down
Well worth reading ?and had the privilege of working on the pier within the theatre, I didn't want to put it down
October 17, 2020
Great read
Loved it. Great story, well written, good strong characters. Now going to find more by Martin, hope they are as good.
Loved it. Great story, well written, good strong characters. Now going to find more by Martin, hope they are as good.
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