Review: On Chapel Sands by Laura Cumming
This makes a different read for a book group as it is a true story based on a real life event, but reads as a novel.
Set in Lincolnshire in the 1930s, the author unravels the secrets of her mother’s past through the narrative. While attempting to get beyond the closed, tight-knit village community where her mother grew up, the author reveals the attitudes and expectations of a very different period in time.
The evocative descriptions conjure up both the period and landscape. With an artistic background the author combines beautiful writing with images, pictures and photographs woven through the story to enhance and compliment the narrative. The description of places shows her appreciation of the unusual beauty of the landscape of Lincolnshire, one which attracted well known artists.
The dominant relationships are between parent and child, in particular that of the author and her mother, and the themes of the book are love and loss of love.
Recommendation: Very well written and descriptive, something different for a book group, and set in a part of England not immediately thought of for its beauty.
This review is written by The Borrowers Book Group at Kesgrave Library