Caroline Lodge, co-author of The New Age of Ageing and Retiring with Attitude, has been on a quest to find books that depict older people, especially older women, as real humans, with the full range of emotions and experiences. She has now reviewed over sixty, and has also questioned assumptions about older women writers, on her blog, Bookword, and been quoted in Mslexia, the magazine for women who write.
So, I’m honoured that she accepted an advance copy of Lyrics for the Loved Ones, and shared her thoughts online. Caroline sums up my novel: vividly illuminates recent inequalities, with humour and humanity. Read the full review here
After half a century confined in a psychiatric hospital, Matty has moved to a care home on the Cumbrian coast. Next year, she’ll be a hundred, and she intends to celebrate in style. Yet, before she can make the arrangements, her ‘maid’ goes missing.
Irene, a care assistant, aims to surprise Matty with a birthday visit from the child she gave up for adoption as a young woman. But, when lockdown shuts the care-home doors, all plans are put on hold.
But Matty won’t be beaten. At least not until the Black Lives Matter protests burst her bubble and buried secrets come to light.
Will she survive to a hundred? Will she see her ‘maid’ again? Will she meet her long-lost child?
Rooted in injustice, balanced with humour, this is a bittersweet story of reckoning with hidden histories in cloistered times.
Follow this link to purchase a copy: books2read.com/LovedOnes
