Just finished The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy by Rachel Joyce. Classed as a companion to The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry it tells the story of Queenie, the Accountant from the brewery where Harold and she meet. The novel takes up her story at the point when Queenie learns that Harold is walking to see her in the hospice in Berwick-on-Tweed from his home in Devon. Queenie has sent Harold a letter and never expected him to reply, let alone walk all that way (which kind of starts as an accident for Harold - you'll need to read the first book to understand this, and do read it!).
So Queenie decides she must write a letter which will be handed to Harold before he sees her. In this letter she describes her life after leaving Kingsbridge in Devon, her love for him, which has never faded, and her confession. However, the news that Harold is walking becomes something to hold on to for the other residents in the hospice. They build a Harold Fry corner and pin up the postcards he sends from the places he has passed. Life in the hospice changes. You will need a box of tissues handy for this one, but despite the nature of the subject there are great flashes of humour. Queenie is often rather high on morphine. She views a visitor with the words, 'She had a grapefruit on her head. She'd also brought her horse.' The visitor says 'People pay good money for drugs like yours.' Comments like this stops the story from becoming depressing.
Though these people are in the last weeks of their lives they are living, and Harold Fry is who they are living for! I loved the book and didn't want it to end. It was emotional, sad, funny. I wondered if it could be as good as the first book but it was. There is a lot more insight into events that happened in the first book and the story will hang on inside you for a good while. Now go read it!
So Queenie decides she must write a letter which will be handed to Harold before he sees her. In this letter she describes her life after leaving Kingsbridge in Devon, her love for him, which has never faded, and her confession. However, the news that Harold is walking becomes something to hold on to for the other residents in the hospice. They build a Harold Fry corner and pin up the postcards he sends from the places he has passed. Life in the hospice changes. You will need a box of tissues handy for this one, but despite the nature of the subject there are great flashes of humour. Queenie is often rather high on morphine. She views a visitor with the words, 'She had a grapefruit on her head. She'd also brought her horse.' The visitor says 'People pay good money for drugs like yours.' Comments like this stops the story from becoming depressing.
Though these people are in the last weeks of their lives they are living, and Harold Fry is who they are living for! I loved the book and didn't want it to end. It was emotional, sad, funny. I wondered if it could be as good as the first book but it was. There is a lot more insight into events that happened in the first book and the story will hang on inside you for a good while. Now go read it!
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