Monday 15 August 2022

The Marmalade Diaries


I don't write too many reviews these days. I might post something in my Instagram/Facebook stories  but I couldn't not review this book. 

I saw it on display at the library I work in about a month ago. I may have got over jubilant while talking to a workmate about it.  I loved this author's last book The Gran Tour and was hopeful this book would be just as good. It's better! 

Ben writes this book in diary format and it covers the period of October 2020 to August 2021. Ben, 35, needs a place to live and Winnie, 85, needs someone to help her around the house, lighting the fire each morning, cooking some meals, running general day to day errands.

There are a few brief observations about the Covid 19 pandemic but that is not the focus of the book. I love the conversations between Ben and Winnie and the observations Ben makes of everyday life. At the start of each month Ben writes about an event in Winnie's past. 

I laughed a lot and I cried.

There's a lovely part in the book where Winnie tells her granddaughter who's holidaying in Italy how important it is that she "take it all in. Anything beautiful. Anything at all''. 

I've been on a roll this year finding some great books to read but this would easily be the best I've read this year. I did not want it to end. Look forward to Ben's next book.

 

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