Lovers and Newcomers

by Rosie Thomas

From the bestselling author of Iris and Ruby comes a novel in which a group of old friends reunite to start a new stage of their lives. Miranda Meadowe decides a lonely widowhood in her crumbling country house is not for her. Reviving a university dream, she invites five of her oldest friends to come and join her to live, and to stave off the prospect of old age. All have their own reasons for accepting. To begin with, omens are good. They laugh, dance, drink and behave badly, as they cling to the heritage they thought was theirs for power, health, stability. They are the baby boomers; the world is theirs to change. But as old attractions resurface alongside new tensions, they discover that the clock can't be put back. When building work reveals an Iron Age burial site of a tribal queen, the outside world descends on their idyllic retreat, and the isolation of the group is breached. Now the past is revealed; and the future that beckons is very different from the one they imagined.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Chick Lit, Womens Fiction, British Literature, Audiobook

464 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Janey King, née Morris was born on 1947 in Denbigh, Wales, and also grew up in North Wales. She read English at Oxford, and after a spell in journalism and publishing began writing fiction after the birth of her first child. Published since 1982 as Rosie Thomas, she has written fourteen best-selling novels, deal with the common themes of love and loss. She is one of only a few authors to have won twice the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association, in 1985 with Sunrise, and in 2007 with Iris and Ruby.

Janey is an adventurer and once she was established as a writer and her children were grown, she discovered a love of travelling and mountaineering. She has climbed in the Alps and the Himalayas, competed in the Peking to Paris car rally, spent time on a tiny Bulgarian research station in Antarctica and travelled the silk road through Asia. She currently lives in London.

Reviews

[Ira Therebel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was hoping I will love the book because it was just ok.

The idea itself is great. 6 friends who are now in their 60s move in together. I would like to read a book about older people living a life but it kind of went nowhere. It is 500 pages but not much interesting is happening and I didn't get into the story of any of the characters. What did the book even want to tell me? It was kind of an empty and unexciting story unfortunately. Even though the book doesn't seem like it is supposed to be depressing with most of the stories having a happy ending to me it was.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Six college friends reunite in their 60s to live together on the same property. It sounds like a great premise for a story - can friendships be re-ignited after people have lived totally different lives for many years? Once I got all of the characters figured out, I really started to enjoy this book. I think that it's a book that will be most enjoyed by readers the same age as the characters because many of the topics focus on ageing, health and the struggles in long term marriages. Younger readers will enjoy it too but I think that older readers will understand the characters better. My favorite characters were the three women and I identified with parts of each of them in my life. By the middle of the book, I wanted to keep reading to find out how the women adjusted to the changes in their lives and how they lived with such strained friendships. To me, the women in this novel are the reason that it's such a great book to read.

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've loved Rosie Thomas before but I could simply not see the point of this book. The writing is OK, but the characters were just not there for me and neither was the story. I found it hard to finish. I persevered, hoping that it would get better, but quite frankly, I don't know why I bothered. I am deeply disappointed about this book as I expected it to be so much better

[Meg · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was easy and quick to read but I didn't get much out of it. The blurb sells it as 6 friends who were wild in the 60s reunite in their 60s - sounds interesting, but that isn't really what this book was about. The worst thing was the characters - I still don't actually know who the '6' were and I was very confused about who was who. They were all very interchangable and inadequately characterised - I couldn't keep track of who was who and there were several characters who seemed to have absolutely no point or story and were totally unnecessary. I had absolutely no feelings for them at all. Actually the worst thing was that it kept jumping back and forth from 1st person to 3rd person, with no explanation or indication - it was incredibly annoying! I liked a few of the sub-stories, which made the book readable, but they just didn't come together into a main story.

[Hedvig · Rating 3 out of 5]

magyarul ("Szeretők és érkezők"). Egyszer olvasós könyv. Amitől mégis emlékezetes marad, hogy ez az első regény, amit a "How to read a novel?" című online kurzus után olvastam - sokkal tudatosabban, mint előtte. Felkaptam a fejem, meg-megálltam, amikor valami olyasmiről volt szó, ami a tanfolyam anyagaiban megjelent. Most még inkább látom, mennyire elszúrt a magyar "irodalomtanítás"! Irodalomtörténetet tanítanak, ahelyett, hogy arra vezetnék rá a diákokat, hogyan HOGYAN! lehet a regény szövegével dolgozni, mire érdemes figyelni: a miértekre, a felépítésre, a jellemekre, az előadás módjára, a ritmusra, a visszatekintésekre (miért ott, mit tudunk meg belőle), a jövőbe pillantásokra, a narráció nézőpontjaira, és még sok minden egyébre.

[LindyLouMac · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once again Rosie Thomas is exploring the themes of love and loss. The protagonists are all in their sixties, which maybe is why it resonated with me, being in this age group myself.

Six friends that have know each other since their university days have decided to set up home together, living in separate units on the estate in Norfolk that belongs to one of them. Intended to become a retirement haven for the group, things don't go according to plan.

Not a sensational story but a sensitively created novel, about learning how to be old! At times quite sad, so maybe not to be recommended to anyone feeling low and finding it difficult to cope with these current difficult times.

[Frances · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a bit sad and rather depressing. It focused on a group of friends who were nearing their sixties, trying to re-establish the bonds of their student days. As their children had flown the nest, relationships fell apart and human failings became evident. I found the younger characters much more interesting and intelligent than their older counterparts and didn't really buy into the concept of Mead as a retirement haven.

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Can old friends come together again and relive the past. As someone said those of an older age could relate to this story. It was sad to realize that the characters were afraid to grow old. Because of this, their lives were turned upside down. You can't relive the past and you can't slow down the future.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

Every character seemed too self absorbed. Could not relate to any of them. First book I've read by this author.

[Elisabeth Bibbings · Rating 4 out of 5]

You will probably enjoy this book best if you are in your 60's! Six friends, (two of whom are couples) set up a community in rural Norfolk. Amos, barrister without employment and his much-put-upon wife Katherine, Selwyn, energetic and penniless and his lovely wife Polly, and Colin, gay and grieving the death of his former partner, descend on the home of Miranda, recently widowed. Amos and Katherine are going to build an wonderful eco-house in the grounds of Mead House, Selwyn is going to single-handedly refurbish a derelict barn (and live in it while he's working on it), and Colin is the calm one who all the women turn to for comfort when their men drive them mad.
Then when the contractors start digging the foundations for Amos' house, a discovery is made - the bones of an Iceni princess and her servant. With them are priceless grave goods - a find as precious as the Staffordshire hoard.
The effect of this discovery has wide-ranging effects on the little commune ("no, it's not a commune" they all cry in chorus). [Spoiler alert] Katherine meets the archaeologist in charge of the discoveries, Selwyn and Miranda rekindle the flame from their university days, Polly tries to find her son's pregnant girlfriend who has disappeared, and the group descends into chaos.
Again, Rosie Thomas has explored the angst of a particular age group - those who are not yet old, yet no longer young - with wonderful skill.

[Katy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars, rounded down because it really could have used a good editing. It dragged at times and contained so many perspectives, but they often weren't that different from each other. Probably would have been better if it had stuck to the perspectives of the 6 main characters rather than including children, townspeople, etc. Also, I didn't love the use of both first and third person from Miranda. I think the book would have felt cleaner without the first person thrown in there randomly. I do love reading books about adults of a certain age, living their best lives. The amount of infidelity in this book was really offputting. It's frustrating to think that the only loyal marriage out of the bunch of them was ended due to early death, and to see how much hurt all the infidelity caused in the other marriages. It also really bothered me that Katherine had so many valid reasons to want to leave her marriage, but the only thing that made her act on that was by meeting someone else. I would have liked to see her prove to herself that she could navigate life independently from Amos and her boys without having another man in the mix (and then if the romance was the point, for that to start after she left Amos and was living on her own, rather than while she was still married to him). Still, there was a lot to like about the book as well, but I can see why it is offputting to so many readers. You have to have a lot of commitment to slog through it.

[Nann · Rating 4 out of 5]

"It isn't until you come to live in each other's pockets that you start to see all the cracks."
"Husbands, marriages, children, lovers, all these came and went. What you were left with was friends."

Miranda lives in her late husband Jack's family home in the English countryside. She invites her closest friends from university to come to live on the estate. Selwyn and Polly will renovate the barn and live in it. Amos and Katherine will built a brand new, modern house. Colin, whose partner Stephen died some years ago, will share the big house with Miranda. Once they are all together old entanglements emerge. Their adult children contribute to some of the disruption, but the biggest detour is the discovery of the skeleton of an ancient British warrior princess and her treasure trove of early gold adornments. There are several story lines that make this novel a delight to read.

I can envision this as a BBC/PBS mini-series. (Curious, though, that the UK edition was published in 2010 and the US edition in November, 2016.)

[Corene · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pleasant, but not overly absorbing 3 1/2 star book, that I'm bumping up mostly out of goodwill, and for the lovely cover, which in my edition was of an English country house.

Six British friends from university days in the 1960s make plans in their late middle age to live together somewhat commune style on the country estate land of one in their group. This leads to complications, romantic and otherwise, and much drama ensues.

It took me quite awhile to finish this novel, and it was easy enough to set aside while reading other books. I always came back to it, though, and was committed to seeing it through.

There are a lot of characters; each of the six have offspring, or late partners, and then there are the "newcomers," people from the village that slowly incorporate themselves into the storyline. This leads to a convivial feeling throughout, though, and manages to not be overly confusing.

A fine escapist read.

[Rita Mahan · Rating 3 out of 5]

"At nineteen the discovery of love, friendships and any new experiences, seemed not just possible, but distinctly glorious. Forty years later life feels more like a ramshackle piece of machinery, pulling you along with it, tangling you in the spokes of its dilemmas, merriment and agony spilling out as it trundles towards the horizon". As a reader of "a certain age", I could certainly relate to this book and its themes of aging, finding and losing friends and wondering just what the future will be like. I think many of the younger reviewers could not relate and therefore didn't care for this book. While I found the book slow in the beginning and actually put it aside for awhile, once I got going I found it enjoyable but it is probably not for everyone.

[Ruth Griggs · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was just okay to me. I liked some of the characters, but not any of them very much except Colin and Katherine. There were quite a few peripheral characters that just weren’t very well developed. And I’m sorry, Selwyn was just a jerk, an unfaithful and selfish person, with Miranda not any better.

This is a story of a bunch of pretty privileged late fifty-year-olds who suddenly realize they actually are going to eventually die like the rest of us after all, which is just kind of silly and shallow. And late 50’s is just pretty darned young still for some of the dialogue I might more likely expect from 70-year-olds.

The story had its high points, but mostly it didn’t come together to much.

[Julie Tombs · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think the premise of this book was interesting. A widow wanting to gather old friends around her as they age and children leave home. At first I thought it was totally unrealistic given the characters past histories but one by one they find their way. I like the fact the main protagonists are female and strong females against the background of an archaeological find of a tribal princess. The twists and turns of the plot are intriguing and the characters easy to like. The only complaint I would have is the book is too long.

The underlying theme is friendship and family and at the end of the day this is what we are left with.

[Susy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely adored this book. It took me much longer to read than usual - life got in the way - but it was the kind of book I was so eager to pick up and continue reading. It was a rich, rewarding multi-leveled story and Rosie Thomas is one terrific storyteller. This was the first of her books that I've read - I picked it up randomly at the library because I fell in love with the cover - and I can't wait to read her others. Such a delight to find an author like that.

[Billie · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Lovers and Newcomers" is a rather sad novel of a group of six friends that gather in an English Country home to re-establish their friendship from their student days. They are reliving the past and seem to be afraid of ageing. Parts of this book were rather slow reading for me. I thought it was a depressing story. I received the book from Goodreads Giveaways in exchange for an honest review.

[E M S B · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just did not gel with this book, substandard from Rosie and I've read nearly all of hers.
Didn't really care about the 6 characters and there were no real exploits from their youth that mattered at all to the book. The Iron age archaeology sub story was neither her nor there and just seemed to conclude so quickly at the end. Seems it might have been a fill in book for the author to write at the request of publisher?

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Better than a beach read! Such a good story, beautifully crafted--made for a thoroughly satisfying reading experience reminding me of early Joanna Trollope. Set in Norfolk, UK, the narrative focuses on a group of friends who come together in retirement to occupy a family estate in hopes of rekindling and strengthening their mutual relationships...becoming an expanded surrogate family, in effect. However, personal dynamics and family politics guarantee that harmony doesn't always prevail.

[Casey H · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a whimsical little story of friendship between a group of London friends and how it evolves through time.

We also meet their children, grandchildren, neighbours and lovers.

I enjoyed this story, but it is a slow read for when you have time to sink into the story without distraction.

The characters were well developed, the pace was slow but steady and I found the writing style easy to follow.

[Liz Etnyre · Rating 4 out of 5]

A touch repetitive in a spot or two, reminding the reader unnecessarily of previous events in the book, but otherwise excellent story about friends, family, what can change, and what can be constant. Enjoyed it. Good characters, good story line. Will read more by this author. Recommended. 4.5 stars.

[Maryann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book I've read by this author, but I'm going to find more when I go to the library again. I appreciated that the characters are in their sixties. I'm not, but I feel like so many stories have so many younger characters. What I found most interesting in this book was the Icene burial ground.

[Massanutten Regional Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maryann, Central patron, July 2020, 4 stars:

This is the first book I've read by this author, but I'm going to find more when I go to the library again. I appreciated that the characters are in their sixties. I'm not, but I feel like so many stories have so many younger characters. What I found most interesting in this book was the Icene burial ground.

[Dana · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75/5
Overall kind of just a cozy book, nothing crazy amazing about this story though. I did enjoy how it kind of just casually followed this group of friends and talked about what it was like growing old. Interesting thoughts & just good life vibes. Appreciate the season you are in type of story.

[Gloria · Rating 4 out of 5]

an interesting book if a little dry, its about six friends living on the same land and the issues they have with aging and their individual lives as well as their collective lives and the little English village they live near. Its also about the history of the land and how it affects the people in both the land and the village. Worth a read

[Jodie Stroud · Rating 3 out of 5]

Friends who have known each other since their youth but have lost their closeness over the years come together as they head into late middle age. Secrets, affairs, silent battles and fears are all overcome to prove that it's never too late to live your life. All in all a pleasant read.

[Arun · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read the first few pages of this book and I am done. I could find incidnet does not relate with another . The characters did not sink in with the storyline. There was no description of how evey character looks .

[Emily Stannard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is quite a sweet little book, quite poignant in places, exploring the lives of 6 old friends who come together to live with each other in their sixties. It’s nostalgic and heart-warming, a messy tangle of lives and loves. Probably 3.5 stars as opposed to 4 but I enjoyed it.

[Jean St.Amand · Rating 1 out of 5]

I got half way through and it was a struggle to convince myself to keep picking it up to keep reading. Didn't really like any of the characters 😕 Didn't really dislike them either, was just terribly bored by all of them.