Sue Gee
Auteur de Reading in Bed
A propos de l'auteur
Sue Gee teaches on the BA Writing Programme at Middlesex University.
Œuvres de Sue Gee
Oeuvres associées
Étiqueté
Partage des connaissances
- Date de naissance
- 1947
- Sexe
- female
- Nationalité
- UK
- Lieu de naissance
- India
- Lieux de résidence
- Leicestershire, England, UK
Surrey, England, UK
Hay-on-Wye, Powys, Wales, UK
London, England, UK - Études
- Middlesex University
Goldsmiths College, University of London - Professions
- novelist
- Relations
- Mayer, Marek (husband)
- Courte biographie
- Sue Gee was born in India, where her father was an Army officer. She has an elder brother, Robert, now a retired radiographer living in Spain. She grew up on a Devon farm, and in a village in Leicestershire, before being installed in Surrey in 1960. She lived in north London for 27 years with the journalist Marek Mayer, they had a son, Jamie. She married Mayer in November 2003, less than two years before his death on 23rd July 2005. Now, she lives in the town of Hay-on-Wye in the Welsh borders.
Published in 1980, her novel Letters From Prague, was serialised on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour and her play, Ancient and Modern, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2004, with Juliet Stevenson in the lead role. Her novel The Hours of the Night which received wide critical acclaim was the controversial winner of the 1997 Romantic Novel of the Year Award, an award she won again in 2004 with her novel Thin Air.
She was Programme Leader for the MA Writing programme at Middlesex University from 2000 to 2008. She is currently reading for a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing at the University of East Anglia. She has been awarded a Royal Literary Fund Fellowship.
Membres
Critiques
Book 1 of "Trio", which forms the greater part of this novel, is set in the Northumberland countryside, in the years leading up to the Second World War. Its narrative style, however, seems to hark back to an earlier age. In its story of a young widower rediscovering life and love through friendship and music, it reminded me, say, of Thomas Hardy's novels. Domestic tragedies and occasional joys experienced within a small community play out against a global backdrop, whilst the countryside, with its cycle of seasons, serves as a constant reminder of the metaphysical.
The pastoral scenes are lovingly drawn and the story unfolds in a gentle and understated way as new relationships blossom and grow, accompanied by the classical music of the "Hepplewick Trio" which gives the novel its title. There are few narrative thrills and frills - except perhaps for the "postscript-style" Book 2 which I initially found disconcerting and then rather "contrived" when compared to the natural flow of Book 1.
Don't let this comment put you off the novel, though - it's a worthy addition to the select tradition of books inspired by or featuring music.… (plus d'informations)
The pastoral scenes are lovingly drawn and the story unfolds in a gentle and understated way as new relationships blossom and grow, accompanied by the classical music of the "Hepplewick Trio" which gives the novel its title. There are few narrative thrills and frills - except perhaps for the "postscript-style" Book 2 which I initially found disconcerting and then rather "contrived" when compared to the natural flow of Book 1.
Don't let this comment put you off the novel, though - it's a worthy addition to the select tradition of books inspired by or featuring music.… (plus d'informations)
[This is a review I wrote in 2008]
** Beautiful, lyrical story of restrained love and old-fashioned values.**
Sue Gee has created here a love story with true depth of feeling, displaying the sometimes darker side of country life in Victorian England. A melody of prose surrounds her central character, a young curate sent to assist an ailing vicar at a Herefordshire parish in the winter of 1860.
The young Richard Allen, still mourning his father's recent death, displays a genuine love for his God, his family whom he has left behind, the rural community he is to serve, and the countryside around his new basic and rustic home. However, all of his simple and profound ideals are challenged when he falls helplessly in love with a young married woman of important social standing. There is a wonderful purity and innocence to this love, and yet the young curate clearly also has a geniune talent for his vocation serving God... a very difficult predicament to be in and you can only feel sympathy for this young idealistic man.
The story is beautifully told; a compelling read. You cannot rush this book - you simply have to go with it at its own pace and I slowed my, usually quick, reading pace to appreciate this novel at its best. So much more than just another historical romance, I can recommended this novel highly.… (plus d'informations)
** Beautiful, lyrical story of restrained love and old-fashioned values.**
Sue Gee has created here a love story with true depth of feeling, displaying the sometimes darker side of country life in Victorian England. A melody of prose surrounds her central character, a young curate sent to assist an ailing vicar at a Herefordshire parish in the winter of 1860.
The young Richard Allen, still mourning his father's recent death, displays a genuine love for his God, his family whom he has left behind, the rural community he is to serve, and the countryside around his new basic and rustic home. However, all of his simple and profound ideals are challenged when he falls helplessly in love with a young married woman of important social standing. There is a wonderful purity and innocence to this love, and yet the young curate clearly also has a geniune talent for his vocation serving God... a very difficult predicament to be in and you can only feel sympathy for this young idealistic man.
The story is beautifully told; a compelling read. You cannot rush this book - you simply have to go with it at its own pace and I slowed my, usually quick, reading pace to appreciate this novel at its best. So much more than just another historical romance, I can recommended this novel highly.… (plus d'informations)
This is a story of two sixty-year-old women who have been friends since college. Dido is happily married; Georgia's husband has recently died. And life goes on, as it does, bringing with it illness, infidelity, watching your children struggle with life and love, caring for aging relatives. A good read with solid characters.
Two issues lessened my pleasure. First, the ending ties up just too perfectly. Second, the author inserts her own voice with comments such as "you guessed it" addressed to the reader. This took me out of the lives of the characters.… (plus d'informations)
Two issues lessened my pleasure. First, the ending ties up just too perfectly. Second, the author inserts her own voice with comments such as "you guessed it" addressed to the reader. This took me out of the lives of the characters.… (plus d'informations)
Prix et récompenses
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Statistiques
- Œuvres
- 13
- Aussi par
- 12
- Membres
- 464
- Popularité
- #53,001
- Évaluation
- 3.6
- Critiques
- 17
- ISBN
- 70
- Langues
- 1
The pastoral scenes are lovingly drawn and the story unfolds in a gentle and understated way as new relationships blossom and grow, accompanied by the classical music of the "Hepplewick Trio" which gives the novel its title. There are few narrative thrills and frills - except perhaps for the "postscript-style" Book 2 which I initially found disconcerting and then rather "contrived" when compared to the natural flow of Book 1.
Don't let this comment put you off the novel, though - it's a worthy addition to the select tradition of books inspired by or featuring music.… (plus d'informations)