She is dealing with the loss of her beloved husband to whose life and career she devoted herself to. Her beloved son and grandson have relocated to Australia and she is estranged from her daughter. Her days stretch out long and lonely and some days she doesn't even leave the house. Then one day she takes a small chance and visits with a woman in a store line and a new world opens to her. Soon the woman, another young woman and her son and a dog brighten her life. I always wanted to be a writer. Fashion has provided me with a wonderful life, but I’ve been writing now for 12 years in private, in secret, for myself. I didn’t write this book with any notion of it being published, of it even being read by someone else. What I decided when I turned 40 a few years ago was that it was time to take a sabbatical. I had dreams that were going unanswered and those were dreams of writing. So I took time out to write and showed Shuggie to a friend in publishing and the response has just been phenomenal.

This book is a heart wrenching love story. But the focus isn’t just on romantic love, it considers the love between friends, and the love that can blossom between a human and an animal. The relationship between Missy and Bobby was so pure and beautiful. I found myself cuddling my cat a little closer, relishing her warmth and love. It was a beautiful reminder of how much animals can change someone’s life. There’s two amazing things: being part of a community of brilliant people, and always having the ability to put your thoughts into words. Therapy is great – but it’s also great to be able to open your laptop and talk to yourself. The worst thing? So far, nothing! This is a lovely book. Not as whimsical as I was expecting but instead offering something a little deeper; more poignant. It reminded me of an article I read recently suggesting we need a purpose – not necessarily some lofty world-saving / magic-creating goal, but something that ensures we feel valued and have a reason to get out of bed each day. While I enjoyed it, I wasn’t quite as enamoured of this book as some people I know were. However it is a good read and provides food for thought, especially about the way each of us treat others and the choices we make in life. Choices that can have far reaching impact. But sometimes a little kindness and concern can make all the difference. So a number of positives to come out of it, even if the main character is not always likable. An enjoyable read that will appeal to a lot of people. I was raised studying the Bible with adults – and it’s the greatest book ever, right? So my literacy accelerated at a very young age. Books have just always been the thing; I’ve never been able to escape words.Spiky and defensive, Missy knows that her loneliness is all her own fault. She deserves no more than this; not after what she’s done. But a chance encounter in the park with two very different women opens the door to something new. I was newly married at the time and was thinking a lot about love and enduring relationships. I kept wondering about that idea: can you love someone and kill them? Because love ideally requires selflessness, but then I thought perhaps there are as many different types of love as there are people. A beautiful story and a brilliant debut that is already doing well and going down a storm with readers of all ages and I feel privileged to have met and made friends with Missy Carmichael! I still didn’t have much to write to Alistair about, but at least I’d been invited for a coffee and went, in a way. Baby steps. Old lady steps. Even if I wasn’t quite sure where I was going.”

So the day ended as miserably as it began. But I still felt it somewhere – that spark. The beginning of something. Or the end. Who knows? p 17 At my age, reading obituaries is a generational hazard, contemporaries dropping off, one by one; each announcement an empty chamber in my own little revolver. For a while I tried to turn a blind eye, as if ignoring death could somehow fob it off. But people kept dying and other people kept writing about it, and some perverse imp obliged me to keep up to date.” A beautiful story about love, loss, guilt and the power of friendship' Jill Mansell, Maybe This TimeMissy was so very reluctant to open up to new people and opportunities, but slowly, and with lots of intervention from new friends, she started new routines thanks to Bobby, took invitations to lunch, and forged new friendships, her life got a new influx of LIFE and energy. I have a full-time job overseeing app development, so I do a lot on the go. In fact, I’m talking to you from a watch I bought so that I can text myself when I get ideas. I wrote most of The Girl With the Louding Voice in a coffee shop where there was a poster of a girl that the chain’s foundation was supporting. She had the brightest smile, and it felt like she was saying: “Keep going, do it for me!” Missy had finally made her mind up to go to the park and watch them electrocute the fish, so that she will have something to talk about with Arthur, her beloved grandson. More and more these days she finds that she is doing things just to provide a story to share with her family. Before meeting these women, Missy was lonely. Her husband gone, her son living in Australia and having fallen on bad terms with her daughter, Missy thinks it’s all that she deserves. She’s 79 years old, lonely and living with plenty of regrets. There is more to the narrative and a few surprises, however these should be left for the reader to discover as they are an integral part of the story and convey a powerful message. One message, without spoiling anything, is the incredible power of friendship, and the mountains it can move.

A year teaching English in Hong Kong provided the setting and subject matter for Exciting Times, the story of a love triangle that also explores class, colonialism, language and more, while also being frank about female sexuality. Dolan’s friend Sally Rooney (a couple of years ahead at Trinity), published the first chapter in her literary journal, Stinging Fly, and a seven-way publishers’ scrum ensued. Is she, as the industry buzz suggests, the next Rooney? We’ll see when her novel hits bookshops in April. This is a delightful book, the demographics will mostly appeal to older readers, parents who have survived teenagers and young adults holding breath for the moment when they leave home! Ahh! the tranquility. Thank you to Harper Collins Publishers and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this electronic ARC.Beth Morreyis an ex-TV producer who was behind shows you watched and loved, like The Secret Life of 4 Year Olds; shows you might not have watched but would enjoy, like 100 Year Old Drivers; and shows that you haven’t watched and maybe shouldn’t, like Sun, Sex & Suspicious Parents. Missy is awoken by a dog nuzzling her face and she finds that she has slipped from sitting on the bench to laying on the bench. A concerned group of people has gathered around her, one woman holds a wet napkin to her forehead. Missy’s embarrassment far outweighs any injury. And it was still hard, being in the park, without remembering Leo. He was a great believer in a constitutional; enjoyed belittling self-important joggers and jovially berating cyclists.”

I think it’s our great hope! Dialogue Books, Merky Books, Jacaranda Books – all of these imprints are now around, looking for people with different and very valid voices. We’re in a good place. This is why my heart went out to the main character Missy Carmichael, whose husband died and her son and grandchildren live the other side of the world in Australia, therefore she lives totally alone in her house, that made me sorry for Missy Carmichael, and within my heart I wanted her to have someone to talk to, after all being seventy- nine isn’t that old. Surveying the boxes, chests and trunks - the leftovers of lost lives: Fa-Fa, Jette, my mother and father, Leo, even Alistair and Mel, since they’d begun new lives elsewhere – I fancied I could hear the echo of them all in their things.” I was, well am… a huge fan of UK author Anita Brookner. She wrote about loneliness and aloneness brilliantly. Poignantly.

Beth Morrey Press Reviews

I liked how the author gave Missy, with something oddly that happened to her while taking a walk, giving her a friendly voice of another woman to talk to. Bob Mortimer wins 2023 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction with The Satsuma Complex Saving Missy by Beth Morrey is available in some locations and will be available in Australia via Harper Collins in late January 2020. A beautiful story about love, loss, guilt and the power of friendship’ Jill Mansell, author of Maybe This Time