Back Home

By Bethan Darwin

Winner of the Pure Gold Libraries award. Ellie has fallen in love with a high-flying City lawyer, but when her heart gets broken there s not much choice but to decamp from their illicit 5 star love-nest in Primrose Hill to the rather more humdrum confines of her grandad Trevor's house in Clapham. Finding herself back home isn't all bad. Ellie can always hit the backpacker trail again, or maybe find a job she enjoys enough to stick at the solicitor's office she's temping in this time is trying to help people keep their kids, or a roof over their heads, not launch a corporate raid on the City. And it s lovely spending time with Trevor, drinking tea from real china cups, swapping wine tips with her mum, or sorting out her best friend Gina's torrid love life.But just when it looks like everything is shaping up tickety-boo , there's a knock on the door that turns Trevor's world upside down and takes them all back to the Welsh Valleys in wartime...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Honno Press
• Release date: Dec 22, 2012
• ISBN: 9781906784584

Reviews for Back Home

[jayne_charles_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was perhaps more chick-litty than I was expecting, but it was enjoyable all the same, reminding me of the writing of Marian Keyes; it is the sort of book that you could happily take to the beach or read on the train to work. The early stages feature a story of wartime Wales interwoven with a modern day will-they-won’t-they (and largely they won’t) intrigue between colleagues in a law firm. I liked the descriptions of central character Ellie’s temping assignments which reminded me of my own days as an office temp. She recalls one assignment when she wore a red beret to work every day and nobody batted an eyelid because she was wearing it the first day. How true, how true.By the mid section there is plenty happening to hook the reader, and the writing is competent and lively. My only gripe would be that it gives up its secrets way too early, seemingly to clear the decks for a presentation by the Welsh Tourist Board and a party political broadcast on behalf of Plaid Cymru. It certainly wouldn’t put me off seeking out more by this author, though.