I have a particular preference for novels which link the past to the present and this month’s book Count the Petals of the Moon Daisy by Martin Kirby, apparently does that to great effect. To put it simply the book is about how the diary of a Victorian Norfolk orphan helps to lift Jessica, a violin virtuoso, out of alcoholism and despair. Sounds delicious.
The author’s links with Norfolk, as ex-deputy editor of the EDP and his move several years ago with his family to Catalan, have been well covered in the pages of this paper. Keith Skipper in a review in these pages a couple of months ago suggested that Martin’s absence from Norfolk had lent some enchantment to his writing of Moon Daisy. ‘I am hard pushed’ he wrote’ to recall a novel of recent years starring half as many characters bent on doing good’, he dubbed it a ‘Lullaby of Broadland’.
I’ve just started reading Moon Daisy and was immediately impressed by the quality of the writing. Even after just one chapter I know I’m going to enjoy this book. The book has been on the Jarrold bestseller list since its publication or ‘flowering’ as Martin Kirby has called it, at the beginning of April. This is unusual to say the least for a piece of locally based fiction. I’m wondering how it will compare to the established classics of Norfolk fiction such as Graham Smith’s Waterland or LP Hartley’s The Go-Between? Do you think it is in the same league? Why not post your views on this message site.
Jeff Taylor
No I don’t think a classic story in any way. For me there were two main problems with the book. Firstly I don’t think Jessica’s alcoholism came over in any realistic way apart from at the beginning where she is found on the floor of a London pub. After she moved to Norfolk the description of her illness is mainly confined to her buying the odd bottle of vodka, being a bit disorganised and having the odd shouting match before a fairy tale ending to her problem. It’s not like that. Sentimentality rules ok in this book.
Secondly I found Anna’s journal very difficult to believe in. It read too much like a modern author trying to write in a Victorian style without a deep appreciation of the period. A good attempt but not good enough. Maybe Martin Kirby should have got somebody else to write this aspect of the book, D J Taylor perhaps? The journal sections were also much too long and seemed to be inserted quite artificially into the text. I got no feeling, apart from early in the story, that Jessica was actually sitting down and reading them.
Moon Daisy should be marketed as a light holiday read for visitors to East Anglia in the same vein as Rachel Hore’s Dream House, Rafaella Barker’s Perfect Life and Sally Beauman’s Landscape of Love. All we need is for Joanna Trollope to buy a holiday cottage in the area!
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