#Perpetual light full#

A realistic and accurately portrayed political novel. The negative sides of life are depicted: Thatcherism, greed, bereavement, grief, racism, and mental illness, but these were successfully shown as being part of life along with the positive. Comments were that the issues of homophobia, feminism, and mental health were covered well a very real story of London in the second half of the twentieth century and the changes in people’s lives and in class at a time of more social mobility. Perhaps a majority enjoyed it, seeing it as beautifully written and a good historical survey of the period. St Just Thursday Evening Reading Group 7th April 2022.Īs sometimes happens, the readers in this group had widely differing opinions about this book. I couldn’t enjoy it so I gave up but may try again.” Too much detail which sometimes detracts-however superb writing non-the less. “This book is vast, expansive, thrilling yet also works on an everyday human level.”

I immensely enjoyed the footballing contrasts from standing on the concrete terrace in 1949 to corporate hospitality in 2009, both very accurate and superbly described.” To my view these cover 5 events in everyone’s life to greater or lesser extent, being education, love, family, work, and illness. There is a beautiful symmetry to this story telling, with events in 5 different time periods- 1949, 1964, 1979, 19. After the initial chapter set in 1944 with a V2 bomb dropping on London and wiping out 5 children (amongst others), the author speculates how their lives may have progressed had they lived, with accurate descriptions of their lives and times over the next 65 years. The prose is beautiful, with some extremely good descriptive passages and if the author has not experienced all these matters, then he has grasped them superbly and banged the nail on the head. “There is only one word for this book – “Brilliant” it is quite easily the best book we have read as a group so far during my attendance at reading group.

In summary the writing is impressive for its depth and breadth and my comments regarding verbosity would be easily removed by some judicious editing.”

#Perpetual light full#

The various characters reflect British society and its changes during the post war years and movingly describe the many ups and downs that could be experienced by people over a full life, if they had lived. I found some parts extremely accurate in particular the efforts of the character of Alec to get into high paying national newspaper printing-I was an apprentice compositor in 1964 and remember vividly the pay you could get on a “national” and the power of the printing chapels (Union branches) The destruction of the printing industry after the Wapping dispute Is accurate also. Through the prism of the five characters much of British post war society is illustrated in some detail. The book covers the possible lives of five children killed in a WW2 bomb in London. “Not an easy book to read, very literary and, in places very verbose in its descriptive parts. “Profoundly affected me- these were real people for me and glorious in their ordinariness.” “One of the most well observed books I have ever read. Our star ratings varied from 1.5 to 5, with an average of 3.5.

Most of us liked it, some of us loved it, but some didn’t engage with the characters and would have preferred more of a plot. Does it lead to a sense of disconnection that the author kills off his characters in the first chapter? Or does it illustrate the fragility and the possibilities of each life? Another strand was the importance of music in the book, both in Jo’s chapters as she is a musician and music teacher, but also as a soundtrack to the second half of the twentieth century. One of the most interesting strands if our discussion was whether it mattered that the characters were all dead. The author revisits his five characters for a day each every 15 years so we can see the changes in British post-war society through the lives of people who are at the same time both ordinary and extraordinary. Most but not all appreciated the lyrical quality of the writing, especially in the opening chapter, and the chapters with Ben on the bus, and Ben in the hospice, which we found particularly moving.

It led to an interesting discussion, in which we expressed a wide range of comments and opinions so was a good suggestion for the book group. This book begins in 1944 with a bomb exploding in a South London branch of Woolworth’s, then describes the futures that might have been experienced by five children who died in the blast. Whitley Bay Book Group discussed Light Perpetual in January 2023