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The Second-last Woman in England
The War is over, even the rationing is nearly over, and a new queen, young Elizabeth, is due to be crowned next June. Mrs. Harriett Wallis should be happy. Her husband has an important job, the children are settling in with the new nanny, the new fashions are terrifically flattering, and the War is done. Unfortunately, in just a few months, Mrs. Harriett Wallis will become the second-to-last woman in England to be sentenced to death.
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First published April 1, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 63 reviews
December 29, 2019
Jean Corbett, soon to become the Nanny for the Wallis children, Anne and Julius, was being interviewed, knowing she desperately needed the job after the traumatic events of the war that saw the loss of her entire family. The quick approval, orders to arrive the next day – a Sunday – with her things, to start immediately left Jean quite stunned. It was 1953 in London and although the war had been over for some years, the effects were still being felt.
Harriett Wallis and her husband Cecil were a well-to-do couple who went to parties, spent time at the opera and mingled with others of their ilk. But with the arrival to their home of two policemen; and the reappearance of someone Harriett had never expected to see again – meant the family was in some turmoil. The day of the coronation of a young Queen Elizabeth saw things come to a head and lives forever change.
The Second Last Woman in England by Aussie author Maggie Joel was unusually written in that we knew what happened at the beginning of the book – the contents detailed how that ending eventuated. I found I couldn’t connect to the characters and didn’t really care what happened. I’ve read and enjoyed one other of this author’s books, but found myself disappointed in this one.
Harriett Wallis and her husband Cecil were a well-to-do couple who went to parties, spent time at the opera and mingled with others of their ilk. But with the arrival to their home of two policemen; and the reappearance of someone Harriett had never expected to see again – meant the family was in some turmoil. The day of the coronation of a young Queen Elizabeth saw things come to a head and lives forever change.
The Second Last Woman in England by Aussie author Maggie Joel was unusually written in that we knew what happened at the beginning of the book – the contents detailed how that ending eventuated. I found I couldn’t connect to the characters and didn’t really care what happened. I’ve read and enjoyed one other of this author’s books, but found myself disappointed in this one.
June 7, 2018
When I picked up this book I thought I may be a bit disappointed, after all the author tells us who the killer was, who the victim was and what happened to Harriet Wallis after she killed her husband Cecil on Coronation Day 1953! What then could be in the book that would keep me interested for345 pages?
I was to discover that the actual event was only a small part of the story, I wanted to know all the how’s and why’s of the story and they are teased out of the author a little at a time. There were other key characters on the periphery of the Wallis’s lives that had their own fascinating tales to tell and all these parts came together as the story progressed with some great twists and turns on the way. On several occasions I was so surprised by events and I was kept interested to the final page.
I truly interesting read! I have tried to find out more details about Harriet Wallis and the other people mentioned in the story but have come to a dead end, I want to know just what was fact and what was fiction but that was part of the enjoyment of the book, wondering!
I was to discover that the actual event was only a small part of the story, I wanted to know all the how’s and why’s of the story and they are teased out of the author a little at a time. There were other key characters on the periphery of the Wallis’s lives that had their own fascinating tales to tell and all these parts came together as the story progressed with some great twists and turns on the way. On several occasions I was so surprised by events and I was kept interested to the final page.
I truly interesting read! I have tried to find out more details about Harriet Wallis and the other people mentioned in the story but have come to a dead end, I want to know just what was fact and what was fiction but that was part of the enjoyment of the book, wondering!
May 5, 2022
This was alright. Not really what I expected, in that it's decent writing but the plot just wasn't to my liking. Further RTC to come. 3 ⭐
July 26, 2013
First, a comment on the title and what it implies. It’s not the case of an English apocalypse or some science fiction event in Great Britain. The second part of the title that’s not stated is “ . . .to be sentenced to death.”
The novel is a mystery although in the prologue we learn right away that in June 1953, Mrs. Harriet Wallis shot six bullets into her husband, Mr. Cecil Wallis, while he held a glass of champagne and anxiously awaited a TV broadcast of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation. So, where’s the mystery?
Maggie Joel was born in Hertfordshire, in England, in 1966. She worked in London for several years, and then in 1991 moved to Australia. Ms. Joel is quite adept at describing the postwar situation in England during 1953 and, by recollection of the book’s characters, the terrible trauma of family deaths at the hand of Hitler’s Luftwaffe and V-2 Rockets during WW2. (Full disclosure: my great grandmother was born in Manchester, England. I’ve also spent a great deal of time in England, working with British companies, from the late 1970s to the early 1990s.) In spite of their many hardships, the book’s characters manage to maintain the traditional stiff upper lip and even make subtle jokes at times. Jean Corbett, Nanny to the precocious Wallis children, returns to her old neighborhood one day and sees places where buildings used to stand, including her own home that was bombed. A neighbor she once knew gives her a chilly reception, reminding us that “you can’t go home again.”
The book plods along to the expected ending with a few surprises along the way and one incident involving Nanny Jean and Mr. Wallis that seemed totally gratuitous. Ms. Joel also points out the irony in Mrs. Wallis’s predicament that if she’d waited a little bit longer to kill her husband, she would have escaped hanging by getting a life sentence with possibility of parole.
The book would have been much better without the prologue. The suspense could have built up steadily and the reader treated to a dramatic ending. And who was the last woman in England to receive the death sentence? Her identity is not revealed. At the end of the day, as the British often say, that may be the only legitimate mystery.
The novel is a mystery although in the prologue we learn right away that in June 1953, Mrs. Harriet Wallis shot six bullets into her husband, Mr. Cecil Wallis, while he held a glass of champagne and anxiously awaited a TV broadcast of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation. So, where’s the mystery?
Maggie Joel was born in Hertfordshire, in England, in 1966. She worked in London for several years, and then in 1991 moved to Australia. Ms. Joel is quite adept at describing the postwar situation in England during 1953 and, by recollection of the book’s characters, the terrible trauma of family deaths at the hand of Hitler’s Luftwaffe and V-2 Rockets during WW2. (Full disclosure: my great grandmother was born in Manchester, England. I’ve also spent a great deal of time in England, working with British companies, from the late 1970s to the early 1990s.) In spite of their many hardships, the book’s characters manage to maintain the traditional stiff upper lip and even make subtle jokes at times. Jean Corbett, Nanny to the precocious Wallis children, returns to her old neighborhood one day and sees places where buildings used to stand, including her own home that was bombed. A neighbor she once knew gives her a chilly reception, reminding us that “you can’t go home again.”
The book plods along to the expected ending with a few surprises along the way and one incident involving Nanny Jean and Mr. Wallis that seemed totally gratuitous. Ms. Joel also points out the irony in Mrs. Wallis’s predicament that if she’d waited a little bit longer to kill her husband, she would have escaped hanging by getting a life sentence with possibility of parole.
The book would have been much better without the prologue. The suspense could have built up steadily and the reader treated to a dramatic ending. And who was the last woman in England to receive the death sentence? Her identity is not revealed. At the end of the day, as the British often say, that may be the only legitimate mystery.
July 19, 2010
I really enjoyed this book. Maggie Joel's second novel which recieved nowhere near as much press and recognition as her first book "The Past and Other Lies", "The Second Last Woman in England" is a fictionalised portrayal of the second last woman in England to be hanged.
The brilliant thing about this book was that on the back cover and in the very first pages of the novel Joel tells us who is killed, and who this second last woman is. We are given the details of the murder and who is involved, so that throughout the rest of the book, we are left looking for clues as to why Harriet Wallis is driven to murdering her husband, Cecil.
This novel was very well researched, and is definitely historically accurate in its protrayal of post-war 1940s and 50s England.
I really, REALLY liked this book, and read it on recommendation from soemone else. Hopefully I'll be able to pay it forward and recommend it to someone else.
The brilliant thing about this book was that on the back cover and in the very first pages of the novel Joel tells us who is killed, and who this second last woman is. We are given the details of the murder and who is involved, so that throughout the rest of the book, we are left looking for clues as to why Harriet Wallis is driven to murdering her husband, Cecil.
This novel was very well researched, and is definitely historically accurate in its protrayal of post-war 1940s and 50s England.
I really, REALLY liked this book, and read it on recommendation from soemone else. Hopefully I'll be able to pay it forward and recommend it to someone else.
July 9, 2013
On the whole I liked this book. However right from the first time I heard about this book I somehow had the impression that this was a fictionalised account of a real person (similar to Fever by Mary Beth Keane which I loved) and that there really had been a Harriet Wallis who murdered her husband on Coronation Day. I wondered a lot as I was reading it how much was conjecture and how much was based on true facts. I planned to look it up online because I wanted to know more. And then I got to the end of the book and read the afterword. I was disappointed to discover that it was completely fictionalised and the actual second last woman put to death in the UK was someone else. I’m not sure why but disappointed I was.
This book had characters that were you were obviously supposed to hate and ones you were obviously supposed to like and/or feel sorry for. And that worked. It also had a couple of characters I didn’t really understand – part of me wonders what they brought to the story but then I can also vaguely see what they were trying to do with them. I think.
I would have loved to have had more of the Nanny’s story in this book – she had a very interesting tale and the conclusion of it wasn’t something I’d seen coming. I’d not even twigged that there was something there. I do like books that surprise me. It occurs to me writing this that actually more of the Nanny’s story might have ruined that and probably it was just the right amount.
Overall I have to say that as much as this was an OK book it’s probably not going to stand out in the future as one of my favourites. What it did make me think however is that my decision to take my first tentative steps in reading historical fiction was definitely the right one. I don’t think it’ll ever become one of my favourite genres but it’ll definitely be something I read.
(This review and others are on my blog http://writerinawheelchair.co.uk/2013...)
This book had characters that were you were obviously supposed to hate and ones you were obviously supposed to like and/or feel sorry for. And that worked. It also had a couple of characters I didn’t really understand – part of me wonders what they brought to the story but then I can also vaguely see what they were trying to do with them. I think.
I would have loved to have had more of the Nanny’s story in this book – she had a very interesting tale and the conclusion of it wasn’t something I’d seen coming. I’d not even twigged that there was something there. I do like books that surprise me. It occurs to me writing this that actually more of the Nanny’s story might have ruined that and probably it was just the right amount.
Overall I have to say that as much as this was an OK book it’s probably not going to stand out in the future as one of my favourites. What it did make me think however is that my decision to take my first tentative steps in reading historical fiction was definitely the right one. I don’t think it’ll ever become one of my favourite genres but it’ll definitely be something I read.
(This review and others are on my blog http://writerinawheelchair.co.uk/2013...)
September 19, 2022
What would make a respectable upper middle-class wife and mother take a gun and fire six bullets into her husband?
PROLOGUE
Its the day of the Coronation of Elizabeth II (2 June 1953) Mr Cecil Wallis is watching the Coronation on a newly purchased television with a small group of family and friends in South Kensington His wife Harriet Wallis enters the room and shots her husband six times in the chest, killing him instantly.
Mrs Harriet Wallis is put on trial for the murder of her husband, is found guilty, sentenced to death and hanged on the 9 November 1953. Becoming the second last woman in England to be hanged (note: This is a fictional story and Harriet Wallis is a fictional character, so she is not the actual second last woman to be hanged in England, however the author wanted to look at the idea of capital punishment and what would drive a well-off, upper middle class woman to murder and the death penalty.
What drove Harriet Wallis to murder her husband? For that the book then takes us back nine months earlier to September 1952.
This is an interesting book, set in an interesting period of history WWII has been over 8 years but large parts of the East End are still in ruins from the bombings, sugar has been on rations for fourteen years. The Queen has granted an amnesty for deserters from the army. The upper classes are finding it difficult to fill vacancies for house servants after the war.
I read an interview with the author who said she was influenced by the case of Ruth Ellis the last woman to be hanged in England for murder Ruth Ellis was a glamorous young woman who lived, what appeared to be, an exciting and enviable lifestyle. The idea that the state could put her death shocked a lot of people at the time – and probably went some way towards ending capital punishment for women in the UK. While the author had no interest in rewriting Ruth's story it made her think how shocking would it be if our murderer was a very respectable, very well-to-do society wife and mother?
PROLOGUE
Its the day of the Coronation of Elizabeth II (2 June 1953) Mr Cecil Wallis is watching the Coronation on a newly purchased television with a small group of family and friends in South Kensington His wife Harriet Wallis enters the room and shots her husband six times in the chest, killing him instantly.
Mrs Harriet Wallis is put on trial for the murder of her husband, is found guilty, sentenced to death and hanged on the 9 November 1953. Becoming the second last woman in England to be hanged (note: This is a fictional story and Harriet Wallis is a fictional character, so she is not the actual second last woman to be hanged in England, however the author wanted to look at the idea of capital punishment and what would drive a well-off, upper middle class woman to murder and the death penalty.
What drove Harriet Wallis to murder her husband? For that the book then takes us back nine months earlier to September 1952.
This is an interesting book, set in an interesting period of history WWII has been over 8 years but large parts of the East End are still in ruins from the bombings, sugar has been on rations for fourteen years. The Queen has granted an amnesty for deserters from the army. The upper classes are finding it difficult to fill vacancies for house servants after the war.
I read an interview with the author who said she was influenced by the case of Ruth Ellis the last woman to be hanged in England for murder Ruth Ellis was a glamorous young woman who lived, what appeared to be, an exciting and enviable lifestyle. The idea that the state could put her death shocked a lot of people at the time – and probably went some way towards ending capital punishment for women in the UK. While the author had no interest in rewriting Ruth's story it made her think how shocking would it be if our murderer was a very respectable, very well-to-do society wife and mother?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 20, 2013
It is quite clear from the front of the book that someone is about to be hanged and perhaps picking up a book where you already know what is going to happen may seem rather strange. But actually it makes for a rather interesting and intriguing read.
What we don't know how she got to be the second-last woman to be hanged in England?
Was the murder committed in cold blood? Was it a crime of passion? Anger? Premeditated? Opportunistic?
Well you have to read and find out. It is 1952, the Queen has been on the throne not even a year, the country still mourning the death of a King and the prospect of a new age dawning with young Elizabeth, the country is feeling the after effects of the war, rationing is still in force, much of London is still a building site and the smog is drawing a veil over London. It feels as if the place is suffocating.
It feels as if Harriet Wallis is suffocating in her life. Married to a Cecil, more by chance than design and living in a well to do part of London, where Christmas and almost any memorable occasion is delivered by "a liveried man in a large green and gold van". (Harrods) Harriet has it all, two children, a nanny, staff and all the time in the world to do as she pleases. She spends little time with her children, they seem to be a tick in the box for convention and not for emotion, they spend more time with various nannies, the last before Harriet's death, Jean has an ulterior motive to her position in this house. But why exactly does a rather strict chapel girl from Stepney with no family and no experience want to be a nanny?
Harriet is hiding something in this buttoned up world that she lives in. Her history slowly unfolds as the book progresses, one brother works at Buckingham Palace, a hive of activity as Coronation preparations are under way. The other brother has returned from abroad. But where has he been? And why does he not re-enter family life the way convention seems to dictate.
As family and friends gather for the big day, with the added excitement of the new technology - a television to watch the proceedings, despite being only a short walk from the real life event, a knock at the door brings news for one of them and the resulting events end to where I came in - Harriet Wallis is to hang for the murder of her husband.
This is a rather intriguing and cleverly written book, we know the outcome and the author not only takes us on the build up to that point but also further back so we can see the development of the main characters Harriet and Cecil Wallis, how they met but further back to their own childhoods. This is all done seamlessly and without any obvious jarring when reading. Within these pages, social history is pouring out as well as society and how it was changing post war, but also how some standard were having to be maintained. The business of buying Christmas gifts and the sending of cards is a maelstrom of who sent what and to whom, and passed as a chore for Harriet;
Harriet returned to the neatly handwritten list on her lap. The list showed this year's Christmas presents divided into two headings and two subheadings: Presents: Received and Sent; Card Only; Receive and Sent. Attached to this was last year's list against which this year's had been meticulously cross-referenced...
[Cecil]'I see. So next year we send them something because they sent us something this year, but they don't send us anything as we didn't send them anything?' [Harriet] 'Yes'.
This was how life was structured for the Wallis' even on a day such as Christmas. The Coronation Day was going to be the day that changed everything for everyone.
A booked pack full of secrets, lies, changes and everything really tightly packed in that you know at some point it is going to burst and call come tumbling out. You have to keep reading in its anticipation. An excellent read and a very clever idea.
What we don't know how she got to be the second-last woman to be hanged in England?
Was the murder committed in cold blood? Was it a crime of passion? Anger? Premeditated? Opportunistic?
Well you have to read and find out. It is 1952, the Queen has been on the throne not even a year, the country still mourning the death of a King and the prospect of a new age dawning with young Elizabeth, the country is feeling the after effects of the war, rationing is still in force, much of London is still a building site and the smog is drawing a veil over London. It feels as if the place is suffocating.
It feels as if Harriet Wallis is suffocating in her life. Married to a Cecil, more by chance than design and living in a well to do part of London, where Christmas and almost any memorable occasion is delivered by "a liveried man in a large green and gold van". (Harrods) Harriet has it all, two children, a nanny, staff and all the time in the world to do as she pleases. She spends little time with her children, they seem to be a tick in the box for convention and not for emotion, they spend more time with various nannies, the last before Harriet's death, Jean has an ulterior motive to her position in this house. But why exactly does a rather strict chapel girl from Stepney with no family and no experience want to be a nanny?
Harriet is hiding something in this buttoned up world that she lives in. Her history slowly unfolds as the book progresses, one brother works at Buckingham Palace, a hive of activity as Coronation preparations are under way. The other brother has returned from abroad. But where has he been? And why does he not re-enter family life the way convention seems to dictate.
As family and friends gather for the big day, with the added excitement of the new technology - a television to watch the proceedings, despite being only a short walk from the real life event, a knock at the door brings news for one of them and the resulting events end to where I came in - Harriet Wallis is to hang for the murder of her husband.
This is a rather intriguing and cleverly written book, we know the outcome and the author not only takes us on the build up to that point but also further back so we can see the development of the main characters Harriet and Cecil Wallis, how they met but further back to their own childhoods. This is all done seamlessly and without any obvious jarring when reading. Within these pages, social history is pouring out as well as society and how it was changing post war, but also how some standard were having to be maintained. The business of buying Christmas gifts and the sending of cards is a maelstrom of who sent what and to whom, and passed as a chore for Harriet;
Harriet returned to the neatly handwritten list on her lap. The list showed this year's Christmas presents divided into two headings and two subheadings: Presents: Received and Sent; Card Only; Receive and Sent. Attached to this was last year's list against which this year's had been meticulously cross-referenced...
[Cecil]'I see. So next year we send them something because they sent us something this year, but they don't send us anything as we didn't send them anything?' [Harriet] 'Yes'.
This was how life was structured for the Wallis' even on a day such as Christmas. The Coronation Day was going to be the day that changed everything for everyone.
A booked pack full of secrets, lies, changes and everything really tightly packed in that you know at some point it is going to burst and call come tumbling out. You have to keep reading in its anticipation. An excellent read and a very clever idea.
Read
January 31, 2011The Second last Woman in England is a great title and when you look closer and see that it means the second last woman to be executed in England it is even more intriguing . I was a child in England myself in the 1950’s when this novel was set, and while I don’t remember much, I do recall the feel of the propriety and the orderliness of everyday as life as caught so well by TSLWIE. And I do remember the Coronation which figures so largely . I don’t think it can be classified as a spoiler if I say that it is on Coronation Day that the killing takes place as this is stated in the Prologue anyway. We know that Mrs Harriet Wallis killed her husband Mr Cecil Wallis and that it was perhaps the “breathtakingly unpatriotic timing of Mrs Wallis’s crime that caused the jury to take mere 45 minutes to find her guilty”.
Why she did it , in the best traditions of crime novels, is not revealed until the last pages, in fact, if I have a criticism of the book it is that too much is revealed in the last pages. I would, I think, have liked it better had I been told a little more just a little earlier so I could have savoured the final denouements a bit more . But that is a minor criticism really.
The key motif of the book is, I think, duty, or at least duty allied to love and while that sounds rather bland and stuffy, in this novel it really is not. What is, you wonder, behind the relationship between Mrs Wallis and her younger brother – why does she seem so desperate for him to be accepted, even to the detriment of her own marriage? And why does Nanny Corbett seem to need this household, where the children patently don’t need her? Is Mr Wallis the (albeit stuffed-shirt) paragon he seems?
I have seen a review in which it is said too much time and writing was devoted to minor characters, and I cannot agree with that, in fact, I don’t believe there is one minor character whose portrayal does not, in some way add to the general ambience of duty , love (or its absence) and class relations in changing times.
One slight pickiness I have is the presence of a couple of anachronisms. “One-off” was not a term in use in the 50’s and no upper middle class boy, no matter how daring would ever have said “how’s it hanging ?” to his uncle , even if the phrase had been coined then , which it hadn’t. “Dolly bird” was not coined till the 60’s and drawer, as in desk drawer is not spelled draw.
All in all, a very good read indeed and I shall most certainly look for titles by Maggie Joel again
Why she did it , in the best traditions of crime novels, is not revealed until the last pages, in fact, if I have a criticism of the book it is that too much is revealed in the last pages. I would, I think, have liked it better had I been told a little more just a little earlier so I could have savoured the final denouements a bit more . But that is a minor criticism really.
The key motif of the book is, I think, duty, or at least duty allied to love and while that sounds rather bland and stuffy, in this novel it really is not. What is, you wonder, behind the relationship between Mrs Wallis and her younger brother – why does she seem so desperate for him to be accepted, even to the detriment of her own marriage? And why does Nanny Corbett seem to need this household, where the children patently don’t need her? Is Mr Wallis the (albeit stuffed-shirt) paragon he seems?
I have seen a review in which it is said too much time and writing was devoted to minor characters, and I cannot agree with that, in fact, I don’t believe there is one minor character whose portrayal does not, in some way add to the general ambience of duty , love (or its absence) and class relations in changing times.
One slight pickiness I have is the presence of a couple of anachronisms. “One-off” was not a term in use in the 50’s and no upper middle class boy, no matter how daring would ever have said “how’s it hanging ?” to his uncle , even if the phrase had been coined then , which it hadn’t. “Dolly bird” was not coined till the 60’s and drawer, as in desk drawer is not spelled draw.
All in all, a very good read indeed and I shall most certainly look for titles by Maggie Joel again
January 21, 2011
Boy was this book ever so dull. I'm glad I didn't pay for it that's for sure. The many hints and references to things we hadn't been introduced to yet was I'm sure meant to excite the reader's interest but it just annoyed me. There's only so many times I can stand hearing reference to something I know nothing about. Whilst we know what is going to happen in the end as outlined in the prologue, I still closed the book with a feeling of 'what just happened'. There were just a few moments that I found myself wanting to read on but these didn't redeem the book or quell my want to keep reading purely to finish it and move on to something better. Overall, the poorly introduced pieces did all fall into place but were written in such a way that it made it very difficult to enjoy.
October 2, 2017
The Prologue tells what happens - a rich socialite shoots her husband during the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth. The rest of the book reveals why.
The book covers the fear of the upper class having their names besmirched by scandal and the joy their peers take when others are embroiled in scandal. The story has no love for the Wallis family, their airs and shallowness.
The nice Nanny, Jean, works for 2 pounds a week plus board - her family being killed during WWII by a V-2 rocket. Jean is religious and is drawn to the Wallis family for reasons revealed late in the book.
Even though the death of Mr Wallis was known by the third page, the history and motives of the Harris's and Jean made this book a pleasure to read.
The book covers the fear of the upper class having their names besmirched by scandal and the joy their peers take when others are embroiled in scandal. The story has no love for the Wallis family, their airs and shallowness.
The nice Nanny, Jean, works for 2 pounds a week plus board - her family being killed during WWII by a V-2 rocket. Jean is religious and is drawn to the Wallis family for reasons revealed late in the book.
Even though the death of Mr Wallis was known by the third page, the history and motives of the Harris's and Jean made this book a pleasure to read.
July 14, 2014
What is truth and what fiction? As a writer of both Maggie Joel, in The Second-last Woman in England, teases the sensibilities of her readers with tantilising detail. Her deeply interior view of the effects of vast changes in the external world turn the concept of cause and effect on its head. The brevity of acknowledgements and context for her own writing further teases the imaginary line between all of our categories.
The jolt of realisation that the accusation made is the one most likely to take root in viewing the accuser should give us all pause. A compelling read masterfully handled.
The jolt of realisation that the accusation made is the one most likely to take root in viewing the accuser should give us all pause. A compelling read masterfully handled.
February 6, 2018
A book review was the reason behind me reading this novel and I am glad that I did. From the very beginning I knew there was a murder but it was no question of who did it, just the question of why. The plot then took twists and turns and I just had to keep reading to find out what happened next. Why did Mrs Wallis shoot her husband? Why did Nanny Corbett only apply to work at one house? Who was the man who kept turning up in Mrs Wallis's life? This was a well written novel that shows when it comes to family matters, blood is always thicker than water.
December 30, 2020
I won’t say much as it’s been said already. Why I give 5 stars is that only a very clever talented author can tell you the end of the story at the beginning and yet leave you shocked and breathless when the ending arrives!
didnt-finish
December 31, 2012Great title, great cover, great description, too bad the actual book was dull to the point of being unfinishable.
April 6, 2015
2.5 stars
June 21, 2019
An amazing novel of how deep and silent many women are. And how dangerous that can be. After reading this book I went and ordered all her others in print.
Read
April 28, 2020An easy, enjoyable read.
December 4, 2023
I picked this book up from a little book library (one of those book swap cupboards outside someone's house), so did not expect too much.
I was a little taken aback when the murder and the sentence is described in the first few pages, but the style of writing makes this book a good read.
The author still manages to get you interested even though you know the end, at the start. The small details mean you spend a lot of time wondering why could possibly make these people the way they are.
Surprising connections come out, with many a twist - not large twists but even to keep you interested.
Overall this is a well written book that kept me reading even though I knew where it was going. I kept reading even though not many of the people in the book are likeable and I kept reading knowing it was a true story, but not knowing which parts are fiction and which are true.
I would recommend this book to those who love a well written story.
I was a little taken aback when the murder and the sentence is described in the first few pages, but the style of writing makes this book a good read.
The author still manages to get you interested even though you know the end, at the start. The small details mean you spend a lot of time wondering why could possibly make these people the way they are.
Surprising connections come out, with many a twist - not large twists but even to keep you interested.
Overall this is a well written book that kept me reading even though I knew where it was going. I kept reading even though not many of the people in the book are likeable and I kept reading knowing it was a true story, but not knowing which parts are fiction and which are true.
I would recommend this book to those who love a well written story.
June 22, 2023
This one goes very, very close to a five.
Perhaps a couple of tiny things near the end caused me to reduce it to a 4.5. One other thing that bothered me was the title, which seemed an odd choice, though it didn't stop me from reading it. It sat in my house for months while I thought it was non-fiction and I only picked it up when I'd run out of novels from the library on a weekend.
Knowing who killed whom in the first pages could put some people off but I was more interested in the why, and I'm sure most other readers felt the same way.
The feeling of the fifties came through so accurately, even down to getting an orange and some whole walnuts in your Christmas stocking. I'm sure to look out this author now.
Perhaps a couple of tiny things near the end caused me to reduce it to a 4.5. One other thing that bothered me was the title, which seemed an odd choice, though it didn't stop me from reading it. It sat in my house for months while I thought it was non-fiction and I only picked it up when I'd run out of novels from the library on a weekend.
Knowing who killed whom in the first pages could put some people off but I was more interested in the why, and I'm sure most other readers felt the same way.
The feeling of the fifties came through so accurately, even down to getting an orange and some whole walnuts in your Christmas stocking. I'm sure to look out this author now.
February 13, 2025
This was well written and was an easy writing style which meant you could get swept along on the premise and story. It was sometimes hard to tell who was telling the story but it didn’t really spoil it overall. It was a interesting look at what effects us from the past to the present and how it drives our actions and thoughts. I would read other books by this author as i found her style easy to read and her themes interesting. The era was portrayed well and you felt what it would be like for all people after the war had ended and how things were viewed from before the war and after. All in all a good read.
March 11, 2024
Maggie Joel might enjoy her day job, I don't know, but to me it seems an awful waste of Australian writing talent that she can only publish these immersive works of historical fiction every few years. This is why we need a UBI and more investment in the arts.
Somebody please let Maggie Joel write full-time.
I enjoyed this story and am glad to have vicariously lived these brief last months of a woman's life subsumed by others who got bigger headlines.
Somebody please let Maggie Joel write full-time.
I enjoyed this story and am glad to have vicariously lived these brief last months of a woman's life subsumed by others who got bigger headlines.
May 21, 2017
An interesting slant. The outcome is known right from the start but this in no way detracts from the story. The characters are well developed even though none of them is especially likeable. Although the second world war ended seven years ago, the author captures an England still struggling under extreme austerity. An enjoyable read.
October 6, 2019
The unraveling of why Harriet would shoot her husband is fascinating. Throw in the Bitter Nanny, and some family secrets, and you have a good mix. All the while, class and social standing come into it, and you have an intriguing novel that makes you think about family, power and the effects of war. The supercilious children in this are also well drawn.
August 18, 2025
At a loss of something to read i was fortunate enough to discover this very readable story. It is set in an era that fascinates me and the length and breadth of the plot and subplots kept me enthralled. A clever author with an erudite grasp of the language and time the book is set in. Early 1950’s and Elizabeth’s coronation.
May 11, 2018
A nice enough story, but bogged down in domestic procedural and detail. I thought it was actually based on a true story, until discussing it as part of our book group. Unsatisfying in its culmination.
September 18, 2018
Fortunately I never read prologues if they're dated after chapter one. Just as well, it gives the story away.
Also unfortunately, it wasn't interesting enough to do more than gallop through so all in all a disappointing book.
Also unfortunately, it wasn't interesting enough to do more than gallop through so all in all a disappointing book.
December 11, 2021
I was engaged in this book for the entire thing, up until the end. You know what happens at the end from the beginning, but I thought there would be more of an impact, with the story tying together. Instead it felt vaguely rushed, and left things unexplored.
July 30, 2021
The prologue of the book tells the end of the story, and the rest of the book reveals, sometimes a bit laboriously, how the end came to be.
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