The Irish Midwife by Seana Tinley - #bookreview #blogtour

The day Peggy Cassidy's life changed forever began with the birth of a baby. At the ripe old age of sixteen - nearly seventeen - she had seen almost a hundred babies born, and every single birth had been unique.

The Blurb

Can she finally put herself first, in order to find love?

Peggy Cassidy is a milly, working in the Belfast linen mills to just about get by. But Peggy also has another job - a secret one. She works as a handywoman - an illegal midwife, tending to the women of her community in their time of need.

When Peggy is offered the chance to leave Belfast to receive formal midwifery training in Dublin, it sets off a chain of events that will change her life forever.

But amongst her middle-class colleagues, Peggy must keep the truth about her past secret at all times. If the realities of her life in Belfast are revealed, she could lose everything she has worked for.

And when she meets a well-to-do doctor down in Dublin, she must make a decision: should she protect her family and her history? Or can she let herself fall in love?

My Review

I enjoyed this novel, which is set in Belfast, very much.

Peggy is the main character, and she was delightful. She is a fantastic creation who is an honest, intelligent and loyal young woman. Having worked as a handywoman (a form of midwifery that preceded trained midwives in Ireland), when she has the opportunity to train as a registered midwife, she must keep her previous work a secret. Being such an honest person, she struggles with this. Added to this, when she falls in love with a medical student who she knows her family will disapprove of, her loyalty to them is also put to the test.

It was difficult for Peggy to fit into the midwifery course, which is usually only open to middle-class young women from respectable backgrounds. However, Peggy comes from a poor, working-class background. It is testament to her that she is able to fit into this environment, form friendships, and earn respect.

The book has much to say about prejudice on both sides of the class structure. Both have preconceived ideas of the other, and Peggy was a vehicle for breaking down those prejudices to a certain point.

It was a lovely book to read. It was an easy, entertaining and informative novel, which I recommend.  It will appeal to fans of the television series, Call the Midwife, as well as to all lovers of historical fiction.

I understand that it is the first in a planned series, and I'm already very keen to read the next one.

Book Details

ISBN:  978 1399747684

Publisher:  Hodder

Formats:  e-book, audio and paperback

No. of Pages:  416 (paperback)

Series: First book in a new series

Purchase Links

Bookshop.org

Amazon UK

Amazon US

About the Author

Seána Tinley is an Irish author of saga historical romance. She also writes regency romance as Catherine Tinley.

After a career encompassing speech and language therapy, Sure Start, being president of a charity, and managing a maternity service, she now works as NI Country Director for a leading UK charity.

Seána was appointed as chair of the Romantic Novelists’Association in August 2024.

You can also find Seana at:

Author Website

Instagram

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Bluesky

(ARC and media courtesy of Rachel's Random Resources)

(all opinions are my own)

(Bookshop.org affiliated)

Leaving Everything Most Loved by Jacqueline Winspear - #BookReview - Maisie Dobbs #10

"Maisie Dobbs manoeuvred her MG 14/28 Tourer into a place outside the bell-shaped frontage of the grand country house. She turned off the engine but remained seated. She needed time to consider her reason for coming to this place before she relinquished the security of her motor car and made her way towards the heavy oak door."

London, 1933. Two months after Usha Pramal is found murdered in a South London canal, her brother turns to Maisie Dobbs to find the truth about her death, as Scotland Yard have failed to conduct a proper investigation.

Before her murder, Usha was staying at an ayah's hostel, a refuge for Indian women whose British employers had turned them out. But nothing is as it seems and soon another Indian woman is killed before she can speak out. As Maisie is pulled deeper into an unfamiliar yet alluring subculture, her investigation becomes clouded by the unfinished business of a previous case. And at the same time her lover, James Compton, gives her an ultimatum she cannot ignore.

***

I really like the Maisie Dobbs books and this is number ten in the series. Of course, for those of you who follow my blog regularly, you will already know that I have read them all in order, as my anally retentive mind insists upon it. However, I have not reviewed them all but my reviews of Maisie Dobbs, (#1) Pardonable Lies, (#3) and Messenger of Truth (#4) can all be accessed by clicking on the title links. Although it is not entirely neccessary to read them in order I really do recommend starting with, Maisie Dobbs, the first in the series as it provides so much information of Maisie's background.

I have become rather fond of Maisie over the years. She is a bit like having a friend who I am continually drawn back to but who can be a little irritating at times. She has a tendency towards arrogance, and will sometimes bulldoze herself over the feelings of others. However, I still find her a charming and captivating character.

In this particular novel, Ms. Winspear takes up the themes of prejudice, immigration and love and combines them into one delightful story. There are ample twists and turns that are appropriately placed and paced throughout the book.

To date there are fifteen books in this series so I have at least five more to look forward to.

ISBN: 978 0749014599

Publisher: Allison & Busby

About the author:

Jacqueline Winspear was born and raised in the county of Kent, England. Following higher education at the University of London’s Institute of Education, Jacqueline worked in academic publishing, in higher education and in marketing communications in the UK.

She emigrated to the United States in 1990, and while working in business and as a personal / professional coach, Jacqueline embarked upon a life-long dream to be a writer.

A regular contributor to journals covering international education, Jacqueline has published articles in women's magazines and has also recorded her essays for KQED radio in San Francisco. She currently divides her time between Ojai and the San Francisco Bay Area and is a regular visitor to the United Kingdom and Europe.

Jacqueline is the author of the New York Times bestsellers A Lesson in Secrets, The Mapping of Love and Death, Among the Mad, and An Incomplete Revenge, and other nationally bestselling Maisie Dobbs novels. She has won numerous awards for her work, including the Agatha, Alex,and Macavity awards for the first book in the series, Maisie Dobbs, which was also nominated for the Edgar Award for best novel and was a New York Times Notable Book.

A Single Thread by Tracy Chevalier - #Book Review

"'Shhh!' Violet Speedwell frowned. She did not need shushing; she had not said anything. The shusher, an officious woman sporting a helmet of grey hair, had planted herself squarely in the archway that led into the choir, Violet's favourite part of Winchester Cathedral."

1932. After the Great War took both her beloved brother and her fiancé, Violet Speedwell has become a "surplus woman," one of a generation doomed to a life of spinsterhood after the war killed so many young men. Yet Violet cannot reconcile herself to a life spent caring for her grieving, embittered mother. After countless meals of boiled egg and dry toast, she saves enough to move out of her mother's home and into the town of Winchester, home to one of England's grandest cathedrals. There, Violet is drawn into a society of broderers--women who embroider kneelers (kneeling cushions) for the Cathedral, carrying on a centuries-long tradition of bringing comfort to worshippers.

Violet finds support and community in the group, fulfillment in the work they create, and even a growing friendship with the vivacious Gilda. But when forces threaten her new independence and another war appears on the horizon, Violet must fight to put down roots in a place where women aren't expected to grow. Told in Chevalier's glorious prose, A Single Thread is a timeless story of friendship, love, and a woman crafting her own life.

***

We are living in extraordinary times - times of anxiety, worry and uncertainty. My reading tastes are currently inclined towards the lighthearted and humorous. However, this book was neither of those things but it was absolutely the best thing I could be reading right now. I loved it, loved it, loved it.

The pacing of this book was perfect. It is sedate and gentle and I felt as though I was being swept along in the gentle current that was Violet's life. Ms Chevalier's writing is consistently engrossing across all of her works and is very apparent in this novel.

Violet is a wonderful character. Set between the wars we see how she is able to adapt to a life that was unexpected before the Great War. Like many women of the period, Violet finds herself living a life that was unanticipated when her fiance was killed in battle and she faced life as a spinster. However, we see her grow and develop into a woman who was brave, courageous and who  paved the way for generations of women to come.

A book that combines two of my favourite things, reading and needlework, was a 'must read' for me and I enjoyed every word. I have previously read most of Ms, Chevalier's books and have enjoyed them all. I highly recommend this book.

ISBN: 978 0008153847

Publisher: The Borough Press

About the Author:

Tracy Chevalier is the author of ten novels, including At the Edge of the Orchard, Remarkable Creatures and Girl with a Pearl Earring, an international bestseller that has sold over five million copies and won the Barnes and Noble Discover Award. Born in Washington DC, in 2984 she moved to London, where she lives with her husband and son.