You may remember Ruth Jones more from either creating the character Nessa in Gavin and Stacey alongside James Corden or Stella from the Sky One hit tv show of the same name, rather than a novelist but Never Greener is Jones’ first foray into the literary world.
The story is a chick flickesq yarn about the lives of a number of individuals including Callum and Belinda who are married and living in Edinburgh, Kate the budding actress, Matt the quiet and composed Art Graduate and his best friend Hetty.
The story starts in the mid 1980s with Callum and Belinda in their mid 30s, with Belinda expecting their third child imminently. Callum is a primary school teacher who to supplement his income helps his brother out at his pub by doing a few shifts. A young Kate, who is 17 years younger than Callum walks into the pub one evening whilst Callum is working, to start a trial working at the pub.
By the end of that first night, Callum offers Kate a lift home and as soon as they get in the car, Kate starts kissing Callum and a passionate affair begins between the two of them. Callum keeps telling himself to end it before anyone gets hurt but he can’t help the attraction he feels towards Kate and Kate is falling head over heals in love with Callum.
Kate forever the daring devil turns up at Callum’s after the baby is born and gives him and Belinda a present much to Callum’s shock and she convinces herself that Callum will leave Belinda for her. Eventually with her conviction so high she tells Belinda about their affair but Callum stays by Belinda’s side and their relationship is over ...... for now !! Kate then finds out she is pregnant and tells Callum that she is having an abortion much to his dismay.
Fast forward twenty years and Kate is now a successful actress and is married to Matt, living in London and they have a lovely young daughter. Matt is a part time home dad and also owns a successful art shop in London. His best friend from Uni, the somewhat scatty and besotted with Adam, Hetty is a confidant of Matt’s and godmother to his and Kate’s daughter.
Back up in Scotland, Callum and Belinda have repaired the damage caused to their marriage some twenty years earlier and their children have grown up. Callum is now the deputy head at a local school once attended by Kate.
The paths of Callum and Kate are crossed again when the headmaster of the school invites Kate to come and talk to the children about her acting careeer as part of the schools centenary celebrations. When she comes and unexpectedly sees Callum both of their passions reignite for each other and it isn’t long before their passions are set back on fire and their affair restarts after twenty years.
Never Greener then takes us through their illicit affair and shows up the damage that it causes all around as Kate wants her man at all costs. We also dally into the past to explain so,e of the facts that bring us to the present day and as a side story we learn more about Hetty.
The story line too me was weak and quite predictable and, was a disappointing first novel from Ruth Jones. Added to that I found myself getting frustrated with the factual inaccuracies quoted in the storyline, most noticeable when rail travel was involved (eg Kate is travelling down from Edinburgh on the train and speaks to Matt as she is going through Peterborough, then the train arrives into Euston, when in fact the service from Edinburgh via Peterborough actually arrives into Kings Cross !! There was also another involving the London Underground). These sorts of inaccuracies should be researched by the author and checked by the publisher so I was a little disappointed. The side story around Hetty also seemed a bit pointless in the building up to the big finale (which happens a bit early). After the finale the story carries on needlessly and as a result the novel could have been shorter.
I also found that I read through it too quickly, not because I was wanting to find out what was going to happen (like I usually do !!) but, because I just wanted to finish it and get on to my next book to review. Therefore as a result I will rate Never Greener a 5 out of 10, giving this slightly more generous rating simply because it was Ruth Jones’ first attempt at a novel and surely with her talents she can do better.
I am sure that this book may appeal a lot more to the ladies on board ship, especially to those who want a quick read whilst sat by the pool on a sun lounger but this probably isn’t a book recommended for the men. I would recommend that if you do want it on your holiday shortlist that you down load it onto your kindle rather than buy the book as it’s not a read that will look great on your bookshelf when you get home.
It will be interesting to see what Jones follows this novel up with and I will give her one more try but on this evidence it’s got to be a lot better !!!
More information on Ruth Jones and Never Greener can be found at
https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/ruth-jones/1079645/
Happy Reading !!
Canberralover
No comments:
Post a Comment