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Striking
the right note
Jeannie
Heppell cleverly takes on a classical style of writing in Maddy
and the Captain.
The
genre and this style befits the era before and during the First
World War.
This
is a seemingly pleasant tale of the upper classes and their desire
to help the war effort.
Maddy,
the main character, is taken from school, to falling in love and
coming to Yorkshire to help out at Kelsay Park, a convalescence
home for injured officers.
The
first chapter, however, is a little confusing with the introduction
of many characters. It took me a while to sort out who was who,
but with this accomplished, I read on.
I was
very disappointed to find a year in the life of Maddy had just been
dismissed as a year at secretarial school. Whilst during that year,
a lot more detail had been given about the lives of others.
Surely
one whole year could not have lapsed without something happening
to Maddy?
I am
sorry to say when Maddy came to Yorkshire, I lost her the moment
she left York Railway Station. I think Jeannie Heppell has missed
out, through not writing more about York in that era.
Though
she did give a lively description of the invasion of Scarborough,
which included many places familiar to me.
After
Maddys arrival at Kelsay Park, the story lost pace and, Im
sorry to say, my interest. Maddy felt imprisoned in Kelsay Park
by the interminable rain and that is how I felt, in
some ways, about the story line.
Appraisal
It
is well written in the genre of that time and with the changes in
our language during the last century Jeannie Heppell must be congratulated
on capturing this style so accurately.
I
am just sorry her characters lack depth and the story line is so
bland.
At
this time I have lacked the motivation to read more than half way
through the book, maybe one day I will finish it. Maybe I will be
surprised and the story will move up a pace.
Commendation
A story,
however, has to grab my whole attention in the first chapter.
I need
to know the characters, empathise with them, be beguiled by them
and most of all really care about, and want to know, what happens
to them.
Sorry,
Jeannie Heppell, but Maddy and the Captain just didn't
do that for me this time.
Review
by: Hazel Stevens
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