Our Picnics in the Sun

Written by Morag Joss

Narrated by Rosalyn Landor, Michael Page and Ralph Lister

For thirty years, Howard and Deborah Morgan have poured all their energy and modest savings into Stoneyridge, a smallholding deep in the English moors. Howard putters with pottery, Deborah dabbles in weaving, and both struggle to tend sheep and chickens and live off the land. But what began with simple dreams of solitude and sunlit picnics in the hills has given way to a harsher reality. To help with finances, they decide to turn Stoneyridge into a bed-and-breakfast. But a sudden stroke leaves Howard incapacitated and Deborah overwhelmed. Then, late one evening, two men arrive needing a room for the night - and set off a chain of events that uncovers the relics of old tragedies. And through it all, Stoneyridge quietly hides the bitter and transformative truth

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dreamscape Media Audio
• Release date: Dec 10, 2013
• ISBN: 9781629232522

Morag Joss

Morag Joss is the author of several novels, including Among the Missing and the CWA Silver Dagger winner Half Broken Things, which was also adapted as a film for U.K. national television. In 2008 she was the recipient of a Heinrich Boll Fellowship, and in 2009 she was nominated for an Edgar Award for her sixth novel, The Night Following.

Reviews for Our Picnics in the Sun

[thelostentwife · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Our Picnics in the Sun by Morag Joss is a book that focuses on a few important aspects of life and family. There are three stories happening: the dynamic between Howard and Deborah, the distance communication between Deborah and Adam, and the commentary on the life of a caretaker in a family ill-equipped to handle emergency situations. Of the three, the one that broke my heart the most was the distance communication between Deborah and Adam, her son - but the combination of the three made for a powerful story, one that I both dreaded and ached to pick up ... just so I could find out what happened next.Read the rest of this review at The Lost Entwife on Dec. 18, 2013.

[lostinalibrary · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Deborah and Howard have lived in a smallholding on the bleak moors of Exmoor for over thirty years. They have spent most of their adult lives in a determined effort to 'return to the land', to eke out a living in balance with nature. They have tried to turn their rented land into many things, a B&B, a spiritual retreat, a spa but it all ended in disappointment. Just as they are planning to try a yoga retreat, Howard suffers a stroke. Deborah, now running things alone while taking care of Howard, has only one joy in life - the weekly emails from their son, Adam. It is clear that Adam writes only out of a sense of duty but Deborah needs to believe he will come for a long awaited visit.Having convinced herself that Adam will come, she prepares everything to make him happy including his favourite meal. However, instead of Adam, two men appear at the door. Despite Deborah's attempts to make them leave, they insist they will only stay one night. This one small incident will have a huge impact on Deborah and Howard's lives bringing all their disappointments, mistakes, and failures to the surface, forcing them to reevaluate everything they have done and believed.As I read this novel, I kept thinking of the words of Thoreau: "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them."So I wasn't surprised when, in some notes at the end, author Morag Joss mentions this quote. Our Picnics in the Sun is a story of love and loss, of the small disappointments which fill our lives and keep us from moving or moving on. It is filled with complex characters, driven by unrealistic hopes, thwarted by luck, and unable to change the direction of their lives.The story is told, in the present, by Deborah, who until the end is not always a reliable narrator and, even at the end, she does not tell us everything. In the past, Adam's story is told in third person as we learn how he became so divorced from his parents. It is only near the end, we learn what has chained Howard and Deborah to this land despite all their disappointments. It is only when they begin to understand what has kept them here that resolution is possible. The end, itself, is both unsettling and inevitable and one that will resonate with the reader long after they turn the last page.

[khamneithang-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Our Picnics in the Sun by Morag Joss captures the life and travails of Deborah and Howard Morgan who lead an idealistic life, eking out a living in Stoneyridge, deep in the England moors, with their son Adam. But when Adam leaves to pursue a career, things take a drastic change for the couple. Their pathetic condition worsened when Howard suffers an incapacitating stroke, rendering Deborah just to the role of a caregiver. The Morgans forget their pottery, their animals and their property. It is indeed a sad time for them. Everything is in ruins.Deborah endurance reaches its limit as she becomes more and more frustrated with the life she is limited to. The kind of life she is living now is a far cry from the starry dreams they had when she and Howard first decided to live in the country. Our Picnics in the Sun is truly a sad and thoughtful story of a marriage and unfulfilled emotional lives.Adam is also raging with discontentment. His anger drives him far away from home, little knowing that his parents are in a pathetic condition. He is frustrated with the inadequacy of his homeschooling education, the countryside, the terrible winters, food, and almost everything. He is angry at his parents, and at the way they brought him up.There is a foreboding sense of looming danger when two guests arrive needing a room one stormy night. One of them leaves in the morning but the other, a young man named Theo, who is about Adam's age stays behind. Our Picnics in the Sun is a tale of love and loss, it is a story of the trivial disillusionments which plug our lives and hinder us from moving forward. The book is full of multifaceted characters, many of them obsessed with idealistic dreams which render them powerless to direct the course of their destiny.

[judylou_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Deborah and Howard are living on the bleak moors of Exmoor desperately striving to hold on to Stoneyridge - their smallholding where the land is unforgiving and all their good intentions seem to come to nothing. When Howard has a stroke, his wife, herself not very strong and recovering from an injury, is compelled to look after him on her own. There is no money, the van is unreliable, their crops are not producing, their animals are more a liability than a benefit and their landlord is trying to bully them off the land. Deborah’s only glimmer of happiness during a week filled with managing her demanding husband, who is still capable of being a bully even though he is unable to speak, is the weekly brief email that comes from their son who lives overseas. Through these emails Adam appears to be a thoughtless and uncaring young man who dismisses out of hand his mother’s desperate need to see him. One stormy night, Deborah is expecting Adam to arrive, but two men appear asking for a room. This night changes everything. It is the turning point for Deborah. But it is hard for the reader to determine whether this is a change for the better or the worse.Morag Joss has written a tense and complex story with an air of desperation which captivates and enthrals. Deborah is a fascinating character who although seemingly driven by those around her for her entire life, has the ability to surprise the reader in the haunting conclusion.