The Talk of Pram Town

by Joanna Nadin

'Beautifully written and deliciously clever - the characters will stay with you for a long time and you’ll find joy on every page. Really can’t recommend it enough'
Matson Taylor, author of Richard and Judy Book Club pick, The Miseducation of Evie Epworth

It’s 1981. Eleven-year-old Sadie adores her beautiful and vibrant mother, Connie, whose dreams of making it big as a singer fill their tiny house in Leeds. It’s always been just the two of them. Until the unthinkable happens.

Jean hasn’t seen her good-for-nothing daughter Connie since she ran away from the family home in Harlow – or Pram Town as its inhabitants affectionately call it – aged seventeen and pregnant.

But in the wake of the Royal Wedding, Jean gets a life-changing could she please come and collect the granddaughter she’s never met?

We all know how Charles and Diana turned out, and Jean and Sadie are hardly a match made in heaven – but is there hope of a happy ending for them?

For fans of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and Queenie Malone’s Paradise Hotel , Joanna Nadin's The Talk of Pram Town tells a story about mothers, daughters and second chances . . .

Genres: Fiction, Audiobook, Book Club

Paperback

Published February 17, 2022

About the author

Joanna Nadin is an English author of juvenile fiction best known for the Rachel Riley series of teenage novels Based on Nadin's own childhood, the series follows the comedic narration of a 13-year-old girl.

Nadin has also written several books of juvenile fiction. These include two books for the Oxford University Press "Project X" series designed to encourage boys to read.

Nadin previously worked as a policy writer for the Labour Party (UK).In 2001, she became a special adviser to Tony Blair.

As a child I buried myself in books both at home in Essex and at my grandparents’ houses in Cornwall, where I spent a large part of my time, and where many of my stories are now set. Books and later films were an escape not just from where I was but who I was, which, as I saw it, was pretty much a geek. They gave me the freedom to become someone else, from George in the Famous Five to Velvet Brown winning the Grand National to Baby dancing the Chachacha with Johnny Castle.

Reviews

[Natalie M · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not a particular fan of this one but I do seem to be pushing against the pram on the rating!

Despite the title, it has nothing to do with babies or prams! I picked it up as there are not many books set in the 70s and 80s, and a little nostalgia was in order - which this read delivered on.

However, the continually changing POV's and time changes impacted the cohesion of the story-telling. Sadie is a likeable character but that is where it ended for me. Her innocence in the drama and tragedy of her life was well-written but the dad part was inevitable. Connie's story is tragic and her mother Jean (grandmother to Sadie) is one of the most unpleasant, unlikable characters I've read in a long while. I know sometimes these characterisations are required but there was nothing redeemable in the condescending, incompassionate, abusive Jean.

It felt unnecessarily long and convoluted but I did finish it and enjoyed the reminiscing.

[Caroline Kerdouci · Rating 5 out of 5]

If like me (and the author) you were born in 1970, and therefore are a child/adolescent of the 80’s then reading The Talk of Pram Town will be like taking a trip down memory lane. It’s very appeal is that it is such a nostalgic read,conjuring up many fond memories. With my rose tinted spectacles firmly in place, Connie and Sadie’s story harks back to a more innocent, technology free era where children were free to play in the streets, telephone boxes were on street corners and Ask the Family and Grange Hill and We’re in the Sun were favourite tv shows. Soda streams were the height of sophistication (although our family didn’t have one), clothes were bought in Tammy Girl and the only fast food outlet in the high street was Wimpy!! Bucks Fizz and Dollar, amongst many others provided the soundtrack to our childhoods and the iconic Royal Wedding of Charles and Diana sparked public fascination and media frenzy, whilst giving us all the opportunity to watch the day unfold via our tv screens and celebrate with street parties.
It is the wedding of all weddings that proves to be a significant event in the lives of Connie and Sadie. Living in Leeds as a single mum, Connie is a wannabe pop star, singing in the local clubs and pubs whilst daydreaming of making it big in London. A dream that unfortunately she’ll never realise. Her taste in men is dubious, just take a look at current boyfriend Elvis, and although she’s never been short of attention,it’s often unwanted. It is this kind of unwanted attention that gives the young Connie, troublemaker through and through, reason and incentive to escape her home town of Harlow aka Pram town in search of fame and fortune, automatically cutting all ties with her parents. Although her part in this wonderfully evocative novel is cut short on the day of the Royal wedding you can tell daughter Sadie is much loved and that Connie is one of those larger than life lovable characters you’d love to have a natter with over a cup of tea and a ciggie, (I’ve never smoked!) perhaps whilst neighbour Donna cut your hair!
The day of the wedding is when Sadie’s life is turned upside down and her character is fully developed. Plucked from her familiar surroundings and plonked straight into life in Harlow with her grandparents, Jean and Bernard, complete strangers to her, you can only wonder at how this child with no mother or father will cope. Leaving behind best friend Deborah who is definitely a bossy little madam, Sadie approaches her new surroundings with such fortitude and just a rucksack of mementos that you realise are like comfort blankets to her. She’s plucky, inquisitive, fiercely intelligent and an absolute cracker of a character. No longer allowed crisps or biscuits or Coronation Street, Sadie is reluctantly in the care of Bernard and Jean where church on Sunday is a given and where love isn’t openly displayed. All three of them were the reason I thought this novel to be brilliant and such a delightful, heartwarming read. Back in the day I’d have loved to have Sadie as a best friend, partner in crime, leader of the gang, but that honour falls to Nirmal. He is yet another character that fits perfectly into the narrative and just the sort of boy Sadie needs as a new best friend. Hearing Sadie’s voice in her own dialect adds authenticity whilst poor Jean is at pains to banish words like nowt and aye and in’t it!
The dynamic between Jean and Bernard is completely believable and relatable; she is the uptight, snobby and strict parent/grandparent with so many airs and graces whilst Bernard, mild mannered, goes with the flow but secretly relishes his new relationship with his granddaughter, forever allowing her to do ‘banned’ things as long as she doesn’t tell her grandmother. It’s impossible not to fall in love with all three of them with Jean reminding me slightly of tv’s Hyacinth Bucket.
The writing style is easy, flows perfectly and keeps you engaged, going backwards and forwards in time so that you learn more of Connie’s past as well as Jean’s. In doing so you realise that mother and daughter aren’t so dissimilar as Connie’s diaries would have you believe. Her diaries play an important role in uncovering Connie’s secret past, which does have a serious aspect, and also provides the perfect means for Sadie and Nirmal to act as amateur sleuths investigating who Sadie’s biological father could be, which had me in stitches. There is so much warmth and humour in this book but it is Sadie’s burgeoning relationship with her grandparents that is a real winner for me.
Do you need to be a child of the 80’s to fully appreciate this novel. No, would be my answer since the characters, particularly Sadie and Jean and Bernard here are so wonderfully imagined that it is a shame to come to the end of their story and say goodbye. Naturally, the novel will feel extra special to those of us who do clearly remember growing up in this era and my heartfelt thanks goes to the author for vividly bringing these years alive and providing ample opportunity to reminisce.
I LOVED LOVED LOVED this novel and I shall be recommending it to all my book friends as a must read. This definitely has become a favourite book of mine and in a year of turning fifty amidst such troubling times, the author has brought a huge smile to my face and I can’t wait for book number three!!!
My thanks as always to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read.

[Lydia Bailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another brilliant coming of age book from Joanna Nadin. ‘Queen of Bloody Everything’ was one of my top reads in 2019 & I’ve been eagerly awaiting this one. She really has the knack of creating very real youngsters with dysfunctional families & this one spoke to me on many levels. I particularly liked all the 80’s references. I was the same age as Sadie in 1981 & remember so clearly the Royal wedding, chopper bikes and wagon wheels (proper big ones!)

Of course it is also very sad & a hard read in places. I found Jean an exceptionally difficult character to empathise with. Until the end.

Nadin uses timelines to great effect, particularly when three characters are reading Connie’s diary in different decades.

Pram Town didn’t quite get under my skin in the same way Queen of Bloody Everything did - but still a really excellent read.

[thewoollygeek (tea, cake, crochet & books) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I adored Joanna’s previous book and this was the same for me , I loved it. A little slow to begin but it’s well worth the wait , it’s such a relatable story (you find yourself thinking back to your experiences) You are just into Sadie’s life (and Connie’s and Jeans too but I loved Sadie most) and you share her journey, which is emotional but definitely uplifting. Being born in the late 70s I loved the references and nostalgia here. An entertaining and great story I recommend highly.


Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

[Grace J Reviewerlady · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first novel by Joanna Nadin, and it contains a lot of truths alongside a plethora of questions . . .

Sadie is eleven and she lives with her mam, Connie who works supermarket shifts to keep body and soul together whilst she pursues her first love, singing. Her mum ran away from home when she was pregnant and hasn't seen her parents since; Sadie is unaware of any grandparents but, when Connie dies suddenly she finds herself bundled off to live with them.

This is a story of three women; Sadie, her mother Connie and Jean, who was Constance's mother as she grew up. Their individual tales are woven together intricately and all three lives are revealed little by little, pulling me in and before I realised it I was completely engrossed and desperate to find out not only where it was going but what happened in the past. This is one of those books which worms it's way inside your head without you being aware of it and you find yourself comparing events to your own life. Mothers and daughters are never easy but this author has their relationships nailed. Crafted with realism, well-written with a satisfying outcome, this is a novel I'm happy to consider as a four star read.

[Rachel Lefever · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved Nadin’s last book, The Queen of Bloody Everything, and so was a little apprehensive about reading The Talk of Pram Town. How could it possibly compare? Well. Having just closed the back cover, cheeks slippery, and with a stomach-crunching pain - a concoction of resolution and loss (for the end of the read and the fate of a character) - I can honestly say I loved this as much. Possibly more?

It’s the day of Charles’ & Di’s wedding when Connie Holiday dies suddenly. A single mother, a singer and a dreamer living hand-to-mouth, she leaves little to show for her short, disappointing life – a string of failed relationships, and her one great achievement, Sadie. Now eleven and motherless, where will Sadie go? Her father is an unknown and her only living kin are the estranged grandparents, Jean and Bernard Earnshaw, still living in the Essex ‘new town’ that her mother escaped age 17, when she fled Harlow for a ‘loaded-gun’ life anywhere else. So back there, where it all began, is where Sadie will, temporarily, be cared for. But judgemental Jean isn’t the warmth that Sadie longs for, and ‘the Child’, with her Leeds upbringing – coarse manners and excruciating dialect – piques Jean, reminding her of Connie and shame. But, as truths about Connie come to light, Jean is forced to re-evaluate everything she thought she knew, about her daughter and herself, and ‘the Child’.

The story flits between 1981 and 1969, a relay between Connie, Jean and Sadie, settling on one side of the story before being flipped to land on another – a detail of scorched truth or uncooked expectation revealed with each toss. The characterisation is genius, deftly, economically conjured with the raise of an eyebrow or the rustle of a newspaper, snippets of dialogue and observations so sharp they take your breath away. And the characters, flawed and fabulous, all. Sadie’s wise naivety is delightful, Connie’s ambition so achingly familiar, the porcupine Jean recognisable. And the secondary characters are no less thought-out. Each one sings. Fits his or her role perfectly. Actual people, not place holders.

Much of it funny (some hilarious), the writing is light and quick. But like a skimmed stone, it touches down and creates ripples in the deep, and the crafting of it all is as tight as a wire; there’s a sense that you’re in the safe hands of a master story-teller. As with The Queen of Bloody Everything, Nadin plays with tense so cleverly you’re unsure if it’s first person or third person, or something altogether new; you are inside the action but still observing it; in some places it’s gritty, in others it’s light entertainment; in every scenario, you are in the room, under the bed, in the back seat of the car, feeling every heart-beat. In fact, everything about this book is alive, and, if you’re as old as me, you’ll also feel the steady pulse of nostalgia (which, intentional or not, triggers your own sense of time lost, misspent, of regret even); from the television programmes to the haircuts to the newspaper headlines, the cultural references are researched and remastered in high-definition.

The Talk of Pram Town is a page-turning tale of mothers and daughters, communication and expectation. Essentially, it’s about love and loss and redemption; it’s about life. And it’s wonderful.

[Clare Read · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘The Talk of Pram Town’ by Joanna Nadin is written from three different perspectives: Connie, Sadie and Jeans. It is set in different time periods; typically, the late 1960’s and early 1980’s. It moves between these voices and years through short chapters labelled as if they were diary entries. Indeed, a diary is used to great effect in the book.

Connie is an aspiring pop singer who’s stifling upbringing in Harlow – “pram town” – leads to her trying to run away and rebel. Sadie is her daughter, born when Connie is still a teenager after what we are led to believe is a one-night stand with a distinguished older man. Jean is Connie’s mother. Around them are other strong characters including the very loveable Bernard (Sadie’s Grandad), Nirmal (Sadie’s friend), Elvis Jenkins (Connie’s boyfriend and antihero), Olive Watkins and Mr. Collins.

The story is beautifully told, at times hilarious and at times tragic. There is a very strong sense of place and time within the novel and its characters are very believable. Both Jean and Connie spend much of the book struggling with who they are and trying to right mistakes they believe they’ve made. In counterpoint both Sadie and Bernard remain true to themselves throughout the novel and ultimately end up the heroes. The only thing I was left wondering at the end was what Bernard’s perspective would have added to the story.

Ultimately, this is a book I would recommend to others and I’m excited to know Nadin has written other books that I can explore.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, with it's 1980's setting, and flashbacks to the 60's and earlier. Having the story told through the three female characters, who are from three different generations, worked really well. My favourite parts were with Sadie, and I really enjoyed reading about her awkward experiences with Jean and her husband, especially her reference to him as 'the granddad'. You could hear her accent in the writing, which gave it an extra bit of flavour.
I felt the small twist that was coming from quite early on, but that didn't matter as I just enjoyed the story as it was. Seeing the revelation of Sadie's father, from everyone's point of view, was an interesting method. The only thing I wasn't sure about were Connie's diaries, as I wasn't sure when/if we were reading her words, or if we were reading her interpretation of her re-read of the diaries. Jean was also a very interesting character too, immensely unlikable to begin with, but then you start to better understand her and the situation is not quite as clear cut as you first thought.
Extremely readable, I would definitely read more by Joanna Nadin now I've read this.

Thank you to Netgalley for the review copy.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Told from the perspectives of three generations of women. Jean, Connie and Sadie. The book looks at how a woman's role is shaped by societal expectations, family relationships (or lack of), money and class and how teenage dreams and desires can disappear in the blink of an eye.
Jean is the strict Grandmother to Sadie and mother to the runaway Connie. When a tragic event brings Sadie into Jean's life, she wonders how she will cope. She sees Connie, and by extension Sadie, as a changeling who she has nothing in common with, and longs for her staid life to return to normal. However, the discovery of Connie's diaries and memories of her own youth make her realise that she has more in common with her daughter and granddaughter than she realises.
This is a book that transported me straight back to the 1980s and the Royal wedding, microwaves and collecting Wade Whimseys and the author's keen observations had me alternating between laughter and tears. It's a wonderful book and I wish the author every success with its publication.

My thanks go to the publishers and Net Galley for the advance copy in return for an honest review.

[Nicki · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a treat to get an early copy of The Talk of Pram Town. Joanna Nadin has a way of capturing the child's voice that is second to none. Both the young voice of 11 year old Sadie and the teenager Connie 12 years before, are engaging, believable and heartfelt. (I actually found myself reading Sadie's dialogue in a Yorkshire accent!) I loved the girls and really felt for them both. The cast of supporting characters are well observed, and I very much enjoyed seeing them and the story develop. I was cheering Sadie on and was desperate for her to have a happier ending.
Set in 1981 around the time of Charles and Diana's wedding, with flashbacks to the late 1960s and occasionally the early 1950s, the book took me back to a time and place I recognised. (Basingstoke sounds very similar to Harlow!) It is clear that the author knows her stuff.
I highly recommend this lovely book, and will be telling everyone to buy it. (And any TV company to quickly make it into a series!)
Thank you to the author, the publishers and #NetGalley for the opportunity to read #TheTalkOfPramTown

[Gem ~ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I absolutely adored The Queen of Bloody Everything but I just don't think I loved this book as much. It was tense, nostalgic and again focuses on female relationships and domestic complexities but there were just a few niggles that I struggled with and I couldn't quite engage with the plot as much as I should have. This was probably down to me and how I wasn't quite able to follow the swaps in narratives and timelines quite as well or just not the story I needed right now.
I did love the character of Sadie and her innocent journey through tragedy and life changing circumstances I just wanted to hug her so much. The events that unfold inevitably change your opinions of other characters and this was done really well.
If you lived through the 70s or 80s there's lots of nods to this era and I enjoyed these references.

[Heather Nazmdeh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderfully nostalgic, this tale of three generations of the Earnshaw family really shines. Jean is the uptight mother and grandmother who is so concerned about manners and what the neighbours think, Connie is the daughter who ran away - a rebel and rule breaker, Sadie is the daughter of Connie who is just beginning to try to make sense of everything and wants to find her father. All the characters leap from the page and it soon becomes evident that it was not just Connie who reinvented herself, changed her name and removed herself from her home town. Told from the viewpoints of all three females, the action centres around the summer of 1981, time of Charles and Di's wedding, Deirdre and Ken and whimsies. Hugely enjoyable.

[Bookishgardeneruk · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Talk of Pram Town by Joanna Nadin. Audiobook narrated by Kelly Hotton

This is the second Audiobook I've listened to by Joanna Nadin, the first being The Queen of Bloody Everything which I also enjoyed, and both narrated by Kelly Hotton.

Nadin creates such vivid believable characters and Hotton adds an extra dimension to them creating even more joy! Absolute magic, they are characters I won't forget.

The story is told from three characters points of view, Connie, Jean (Connie's mother) and the utterly gorgeous 11 year old Sadie (Connie's daughter), it's a family saga of mother daughter relationships and buried secrets, set in the 70s, 80s there is fantastic attention to detail and lots of nostalgia.

I LOVED it! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

[Katy Wheatley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a tense, domestic drama that spans three generations of women, trying to negotiate the ever changing world, and the confines of their own class and emotions. Connie wanted to be a star, but somehow, by 1981 she has washed up in Leeds with a daughter and a part time job in Morrisons, playing working mens clubs as her dreams seem to slip further from her. How did she get here? The rest of the book tries to figure that out through the narratives of Connie, her mum Jean and her daughter, Sadie. This is wonderfully observed and extremely absorbing.

[Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

This made me all nostalgic for the 80's,my childhood and classic coronation street.
Voiced by three generations of females from the same family.
Jean,was a thoroughly unlikable character, that you can't help but want to rebel against her.
Connie and Sadie though,were fab,a real warmth from both of them.
The whole finding the father story seemed predictable from the beginning to me,but it was good to follow the characters as they followed the clues.
I very much enjoy Nadin's storytelling.
Like her characters,it has a warmth and likeability to it....

Well most of her characters.

[Katy Chessum-Rice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review
The Talk of Pram Town by Joanna Nadin

The narrative of this story about mothers, daughters and second chances is split between wananbe singer Connie, Jean (Connie's mother), and Sadie (Connie's daughter) and interspersed with flashbacks from the present day (summer of 1981) to 1969. Connie is estranged from her parents and they have never met their granddaughter, Sadie. Fate throws Jean and Sadie together on the day of Charles and Diana's wedding and life will never be the same for either of them.

I did enjoy the character of 11 year old Sadie and loved the way she was written - Nadin captures the voice of childhood really well and I could really feel for her as she goes through the emotional disruption of leaving Leeds for Harlow (the Pram Town of the title) and trying to settle into life with people who are strangers. I found it hard to warm to Jean, even though she is a deliberately brittle character - so focused on being 'proper' that she has destroyed the relationship with her only child, Connie. We do get more of Jean's backstory to understand why she is this way but ultimately I thought she was too cold and there wasn't enough down to 'defrost' her before the ending (it's definitely not Goodnight, Mister Tom!). [SPOLIER] I also had some issues with the ending of the story. In particular the way the sex offender gets to skip town without any repercussions from the law, which was problematic for me as he has a young daughter - none of the adult characters seemed to think that was a risk?!

An ok read overall but I preferred The Queen of Bloody Everything by this author more.

[Cleopatra Pullen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joanna Nadin has a gift for capturing the messy, funny, and poignant realities of family life, and The Talk of Pram Town is no exception. This is the second of her novels I’ve listened to, the first being The Queen of Bloody Everything, and I was struck by the similarities between the two—not least the era they inhabit.

We meet Sadie, who is just 11 years old on the day of Princess Diana’s wedding, and through her eyes we’re drawn into a world that blends humour with the weight of serious family events. The assured writing balances laugh-out-loud moments with the bittersweet complexities of growing up, especially in the shadow of her mother and now living with her previously unknown grandmother, Jean.

What makes this story shine is the way it links three generations of females. Connie and her mother Jean are both fascinating, and each having strived to escape their origins. Meanwhile Sadie’s perspective is both innocent and sharp, and the backdrop of early 1980s Britain adds a nostalgic charm that fans of Joanna Nadin will recognize from The Queen of Bloody Everything.

The audiobook narration enhances the experience, bringing warmth and wit to the characters. It’s a funny, heartfelt listen that doesn’t shy away from the reality that family life can be tough, especially if there are secrets!

[Wendy Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

Joanna Nadin - The of pram town - R - 3 of 4 - 8 1 22
Connie single parent of Sadie living in backstreet Leeds in the 80s. Dreams of being a singing star but works in Morrisons and has just dumped her seedy Elvis impersonator boyfriend. Connie's intelligent bright curious and then on the morning of Charles and Di's wedding her mum dies of a heart attack and Connie has to go and live with a snobby grandmother she's never met. As the story unfolds we discover the mistakes Connie made are also the mistakes her own mother made. Either the author also grew up in the seventies or she researched and written well. I liked the character of Sadie but found both Connie and her mother irritating.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Told in three voices - Sadie (the child), Connie (the mother) and Jean (the Grandmother) - The Talk of Pram Town explores familial relationships, and what happens when circumstance throws together relatives who are really nothing but strangers.

I really liked The Queen of Bloody Everything by this author and this one was as good, if not better. The chapters are fairly short and switch between timeframes and viewpoints (but it's easy to keep up) and were written in the style that makes me think "just one more chapter" and before I know it several hours have passed! Sadie is great, and bonus points go to 'The Grandpa' who was a sweetheart!

[Aria 88 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Audiobook review

Same story over and over again. Daughter (Connie) rebels against unloving mother (Jean), gets pregnant, runs away, has baby daughter (Sadie), dies, gran takes pre-teen and is equally unloving to her

We get glimpses into the life the gran wanted, and via a diary into the life the daughter wanted.

Disappointed

[Brooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

The writing is so witty, fun, original, and fresh. This was a challenge for me, all the English slang and phrases. I liked that, though. The story was entertaining, engaging, and sweet. A 3 generation tale of a mother, daughter, and grandmother. Enjoyed this one :-)

[Zaria Bettles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great writing, and I really enjoyed the timeline as it was well laid out and drew you in. The plot twist I felt was pretty obvious from about the halfway mark, if not sooner, and so I would rather have addressed it then and allowed us a little more time to enjoy the redemption.

[Rachel Horner · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars - good book, good plot, but didn’t hold my attention as much as I would’ve liked. Made me cry at the end although considering how long the rest of the book is I felt the ending could’ve been a lot more drawn out - would’ve liked to see how things played out.

[Clare · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Talk of Pram Town was a bit of a walk down memory lane for me, as someone who was born in the early 1970’s: playing out with my friends, arranging to meet by speaking face to face with them, no mobile phones. I can remember watching Charles and Diana’s wedding, whilst holding commemorative coins bought by my Nan and commemorative mugs that would never be drunk out of (I still have mine somewhere!). But that’s where the similarities in my life, compared to that of 11 year old Sadie and her mum Connie, end.
Sadie and Connie live in Leeds, and don’t appear to have any other family. Connie wants to hit the big time as a singer, but instead sings at local working men’s clubs, and works at the local supermarket. Sadie certainly lives the first 11 years of her life in a much different way to many other people. This house in Leeds seems to be the most stable and ‘normal’ way of life that she has had so far.
So when Sadie is forced to go and live with the grandparents she has never met, her introduction to Essex suburbia is quite a shock to her system!
I loved this book. It has a real sense of time and place, making me feel so nostalgic for my childhood. I really enjoyed Sadie's grandparents: Jean, her grandmother, especially. It’s clear from the beginning that she has her own secrets, secrets that have embittered her over the years. I felt that the slow reveal of her younger life, and how she deals with Sadie as well as her feelings for Connie and Bernard, were fascinating.
But Sadie really is the most wonderful part of this novel. The way that she approaches her new life with such stoicism, her intelligence and curiosity of the new world that she has to grow to at least like, really made me want to read more.
I can’t wait to see what Joanna Nadin writes next - I’ve loved both this and her last novel (The Queen of Bloody Everything), both of which look at mother-daughter relationships.
I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this - it’s a joy to read.

[Christine Hayes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Light, entertaining, an enjoyable listen

[M LYALL · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, love this writer - if you liked Queen of Bloody Everything you'll love this...

[Camilla Chester · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, just brilliant.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you’re British, you’ll enjoy all the old cultural references. The plot was good and had an interesting denouement, which I had worked out already.

[Mairi Byatt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice read !

[Justine Skeet · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. Beautifully nostalgic switching between 1969 and 1981 and a moving tale of the relationship between mother and daughter and grandmother and granddaughter.