The bride's farewell by Meg Rosoff
Penguin, 2009.
ISBN
9780141383941.
(Ages 13+) Highly recommended. A book that is exceptionally difficult
to put
down, The bride's farewell is an engrossing story about Pell
Ridley,
who
escapes from her poverty stricken home on the day of her wedding.
Determined
not to be like her mother, downtrodden and bearing children
continuously, she
takes her horse Jack and sets off to find a better life, believing that
her
sister Louisa will marry Birdie in her place and all will be well at
home. Her
little step brother Bean follows her, and together they travel to the
horse
fair at Salisbury to see if work can be found. Encounters with a
mysterious
gypsy woman and her brood of children, John Kirby a kindly groom and
Dogman a
poacher bring adventure and danger.
The English countryside and its people, perhaps on
the cusp
of the Industrial Revolution, although that is never stated, are
vividly brought
to life as Pell goes on her quest for a better life. The suspicion from
the
villagers that Pell meets wherever she travels, the
poaching that keeps body and soul together
and the terrible fate of those in the workhouse, all paint a heart
wrenching
picture of the desperate poverty of the times. Rosoff has done her
research
well, and the grinding misery of the workhouse at Andover is described
in such an
understated way that it made me go and research what it really was
like.
Pell is a determined heroine, stubborn about what
she wants
and loyal to her family. When Bean disappears with her horse Jack, she
doggedly
set out to find him. She is distraught about the consequences of her
departure
from her family. On discovering that her younger sisters have been sent
to the
workhouse, she rescues them as well.
Pell is good with animals and the way that Rosoff
describes
the horses and dogs in this book, will have animal lovers continuing
for more.
An unconventional romance blossoms in a very low key way, but the
reader is
always aware that it is Pell's strength of character, her beliefs in
her own
ability and her courage and loyalty that are the key elements of this
wonderful
story.
Pat Pledger