The Tapestry of Love

[callmemadam]

Rosy Thornton was kind enough to send me a copy of her new book and it looked so tempting I started it straight away. It’s a brave woman (i.e. not me) who would choose to live in a remote mountain village with frequent power cuts, phones which stop working when it rains and terrifying hairpin bends to be negotiated before you can drive anywhere at all. Catherine Parkstone, though, has fallen in love with the Cévennes and is determined to live there, quite alone, making a living (she hopes) from working with textiles. She’s forty eight, divorced; her children grown up, her mother in a nursing home and her sister with a high-powered job.

‘Madame Park-e-stone’ becomes part of the small local community, gets commissions for upholstery and curtain making and spends her leisure time on her own beautiful tapestry work. She even learns to keep bees and apart from the triste rains of autumn and the sweltering heat of June, seems to be living the rural idyll of her dreams. There are two big problems, though: French bureaucracy, which threatens to ruin her business plans and the disturbing presence of attractive, enigmatic Patrick Castagnol. Is he, as her son suggests, ‘too smooth for his own good’? And what exactly is his relationship with her sister?

While reading this book I felt I was living in France. It’s such a treat to read what you might call ‘light literature for intelligent readers’ that I’m already seeking out Rosy Thornton’s earlier books and looking forward to the next one. Highly recommended for summer reading.

Comments

[cornflowerbooks.livejournal.com]

"Light literature for intelligent readers" is the perfect description!

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[dozydormouse.livejournal.com]

I shall look for her in the library.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Good luck! None in mine but they rarely have anything I want unless I order it.

[(Anonymous)]

I like the phrase "light literature for intelligent readers". I may have to borrow that;-) Nicola@vintagereads

[geraniumcat.livejournal.com]

You and Cornflower persuade me that this will be good summer holiday reading when I'm not gardening. I like her writing already, so it's a treat to look forward to.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Good-oh!