Ok, well I should update on this,(& yeah all the other books I've read & not reviewed in 2011). This is a what I call a trashy potboiler...well maybe not trashy really, but an historical potboiler. One of those easy reads that have drama after drama and it's not written very well...well in that easy to read style and you wonder why the heck you are reading it: BUT in the end you can't put it down because the plot becomes so angst ridden you are hooked and want to find out what the heck happened - even though you don't really like any of the characters and are fairly sure that the historical facts are incorrect but you are not that inspired to go check. At the end you breathe with relief that it's over and wonder if it was worth the effort. It's one of those books that you pick up at an airport or motel room because there is nothing else to read while waiting - you would not spend actual money on it.

I am being hard on this. Sorry for those who loved it. There were interesting bits. There is a lot about Wales and the life of miners around the war years. There is gypsy drama and love and danger. There are racist and sexist attitudes which may offend - though is probably a true reflection of the times and places and a rape scene. There is a running theme of boxing. You would never know that from the cover or the Rossetti poem presented on the first pages though. The main bad boy character - the gypsy becomes a world renown boxer..travelling to the USA and hanging around Jack Dempsey's boxing circle. A few well known mafia thugs are also written into the plot to make things interesting just in case you happen to get bored..and oh poor miner's daughter makes good, then goes bad, then good again. And some fashion tips for the lower classes just in case you want to fake being rich or actually accomplish it one day. Oh and I forgot the incest.

I'm tired haven't had more than a few hours sleep in a couple of days and beg forgiveness for this paltry excuse of a review - if I had the time I would like to check the boxing facts - whether any contained herein is based on fact or just made up. But I have no time to follow up something that I really didn't think much of..

I think this novel was the author's first book - I guess I would rate it in the genre of ?- Flowers in the Attic" without the sinister mind fucks. It could have been good. Maybe. It wasn't.



My father gave me this today - he's just read it and liked it...so not sure what it's like, since he was basically a non-reader of novels a few months ago. It starts off with a beautifully sad poem by Christina Rossetti.

REMEMBER

by: Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)

REMEMBER me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go, yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you plann'd:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.
"Remember" is reprinted from Goblin Market and other Poems. Christina Rossetti. Cambridge: Macmillan, 1862.

( )

A novel concerned with human greed, lust and ambition, which tells of a Welsh miner's daughter who marries a Romany gypsy boxer contending for the World Heavyweight Championship and of how a legacy left to her affects her family.

My Thoughts:

I really enjoy books by Lynda La Plante, especially her crime novels such as ‘Above Suspicion’ and ‘Widows’. Recently I also read’Royal Flush’ which was a cracking read.

This book is her attempt at family saga. Evie is a coal miners daughter, who lives in small village in Wales. She is left a legacy by her school teacher whcich gives Evie a chance at a better life until she marries Freedom, a champion gypsy boxer.

This book had two positve things going for it. Firstly the author and secondly the story content. However I felt this book was missing something. It started off quite good but then I felt it was overlong and I was getting quite bored with it. My own honest opinion is that I think that ‘family saga’ is not really Lynda la Plante’s thing. Her crime novels are brilliant and I think that is what she is best at.

I gave up on this book, not far from the end but feel that it has ran out of steam and I don’t feel inclined to finish it. ( )