Review
'Lee writes with unfailing warmth and wisdom about the comedy and complexity of childhood and family life. A real treat of a novel. I loved it.' --Sarah Waters
An often funny, at times bittersweet novel, Always You, Edina tells the story of endlessly good-natured child narrator Bonnie as she negotiates family and school life in 1960's Britain. Most memorable is her crush on popular classmate Joanna Bayliss, who is alternately encouraging and dismissive, and Bonnie's love for the Edina of the title, her darling, glamorous aunt, whose relationship with other family members proves to be far from simple. Through Bonnie, VG Lee beautifully explores the inner life of a clever but naive pre-teen, and is particularly perceptive about the nature of burgeoning romantic love during childhood, and a child's growing understanding of the complexities of adult relationships. As you'd expect from Lee, this is a warm-hearted novel, and at the centre of its warm heart is Bonnie's relationship with her cantankerous raisin-eyed Gran, whom, in the present day, 50 year-old Bonnie visits in a residential home. There are revalations and surprises to come from these meetings, and one in particular had me cheering out loud for Bonnie. Thoroughly enjoyable. --Diva Magazine
An often funny, at times bittersweet novel, Always You, Edina tells the story of endlessly good-natured child narrator Bonnie as she negotiates family and school life in 1960's Britain. Most memorable is her crush on popular classmate Joanna Bayliss, who is alternately encouraging and dismissive, and Bonnie's love for the Edina of the title, her darling, glamorous aunt, whose relationship with other family members proves to be far from simple. Through Bonnie, VG Lee beautifully explores the inner life of a clever but naive pre-teen, and is particularly perceptive about the nature of burgeoning romantic love during childhood, and a child's growing understanding of the complexities of adult relationships. As you'd expect from Lee, this is a warm-hearted novel, and at the centre of its warm heart is Bonnie's relationship with her cantankerous raisin-eyed Gran, whom, in the present day, 50 year-old Bonnie visits in a residential home. There are revalations and surprises to come from these meetings, and one in particular had me cheering out loud for Bonnie. Thoroughly enjoyable. --Diva Magazine
An often funny, at times bittersweet novel, Always You, Edina tells the story of endlessly good-natured child narrator Bonnie as she negotiates family and school life in 1960's Britain. Most memorable is her crush on popular classmate Joanna Bayliss, who is alternately encouraging and dismissive, and Bonnie's love for the Edina of the title, her darling, glamorous aunt, whose relationship with other family members proves to be far from simple. Through Bonnie, VG Lee beautifully explores the inner life of a clever but naive pre-teen, and is particularly perceptive about the nature of burgeoning romantic love during childhood, and a child's growing understanding of the complexities of adult relationships. As you'd expect from Lee, this is a warm-hearted novel, and at the centre of its warm heart is Bonnie's relationship with her cantankerous raisin-eyed Gran, whom, in the present day, 50 year-old Bonnie visits in a residential home. There are revalations and surprises to come from these meetings, and one in particular had me cheering out loud for Bonnie. Thoroughly enjoyable. --Diva Magazine
An often funny, at times bittersweet novel, Always You, Edina tells the story of endlessly good-natured child narrator Bonnie as she negotiates family and school life in 1960's Britain. Most memorable is her crush on popular classmate Joanna Bayliss, who is alternately encouraging and dismissive, and Bonnie's love for the Edina of the title, her darling, glamorous aunt, whose relationship with other family members proves to be far from simple. Through Bonnie, VG Lee beautifully explores the inner life of a clever but naive pre-teen, and is particularly perceptive about the nature of burgeoning romantic love during childhood, and a child's growing understanding of the complexities of adult relationships. As you'd expect from Lee, this is a warm-hearted novel, and at the centre of its warm heart is Bonnie's relationship with her cantankerous raisin-eyed Gran, whom, in the present day, 50 year-old Bonnie visits in a residential home. There are revalations and surprises to come from these meetings, and one in particular had me cheering out loud for Bonnie. Thoroughly enjoyable. --Diva Magazine
Product Description
At the beginning of VG Lee’s fourth novel, Always you, Edina, Bonnie Benson is visiting her grandmother in the Three Elms Nursing Home. ‘Your dad was very different,’ her grandmother tells her, ‘not so easy to fathom but he had...well I suppose you’d call it sex appeal. Not only did he have it, but he knew he had it'.
Suddenly a childhood memory is triggered taking Bonnie back over four decades to her ten-year-old self living with her family in Birmingham. It is 1964 and Prince Philip is about to open the newly constructed Bull Ring. Bonnie has three idols in her life; Joanna Bayliss, the most popular girl at her school; glamorous, charismatic Aunt Ed, who ‘could light up a room – if there was a man in that room’; and Bonnie’s father, Ken. Bonnie observes the close relationship between Ed and Ken without comprehending the tragic repercussions it will have on both families.
Reviews
‘Lee writes with unfailing warmth and wisdom about the comedy and complexity of childhood and family life. A real treat of a novel. I loved it.’
Sarah Waters
‘An often funny, at times bittersweet novel, Always you, Edina tells the story of endlessly good-natured child narrator Bonnie as she negotiates family and school life in 1960s Britain. Most memorable is her crush on popular classmate Joanna Bayliss, who is alternately encouraging and dismissive, and Bonnie’s love for the Edina of the title, her daring, glamorous aunt, whose relationship with other family members proves to be far from simple.’
Diva Magazine
About her work
'Funny and sad. Enchanting and beguiling. VG Lee reaches parts of me other comediennes can’t reach.'
Frances Gapper
'VG Lee is funny, smart, clever, witty, not afraid to be honest and poignant at the same time.'
Stella Duffy
Deadpan style that observes the humorous side of the casual cruelty inherent in human behaviour.'
Time Out
Biography:
VG Lee is an author and a stand-up comedian. She was born in Birmingham but has gradually worked her way southwards and now lives and writes in Hastings, East Sussex. She has published three novels; The Comedienne, Diva Books, 2001; The Woman in Beige, Diva Books, 2003; Diary of a Provincial Lesbian, Onlywomen Press, 2005; and a collection of short stories, As You Step Outside, Tollington Press, 2008.
Her work has appeared in Chroma, Magma, Poetry Review and Mslexia. More recently her short stories have been published in Boys & Girls and Men & Women, two anthologies from Glasshouse Books.
In 2009, to celebrate her sixtieth year, she decided to become a stand-up comedian and perform at sixty venues. Sixty venues became ninety and she was a runner-up in the prestigious ‘New Act of the Year 2010’ at the Hackney Empire. She has appeared twice at the Edinburgh Festival.
Suddenly a childhood memory is triggered taking Bonnie back over four decades to her ten-year-old self living with her family in Birmingham. It is 1964 and Prince Philip is about to open the newly constructed Bull Ring. Bonnie has three idols in her life; Joanna Bayliss, the most popular girl at her school; glamorous, charismatic Aunt Ed, who ‘could light up a room – if there was a man in that room’; and Bonnie’s father, Ken. Bonnie observes the close relationship between Ed and Ken without comprehending the tragic repercussions it will have on both families.
Reviews
‘Lee writes with unfailing warmth and wisdom about the comedy and complexity of childhood and family life. A real treat of a novel. I loved it.’
Sarah Waters
‘An often funny, at times bittersweet novel, Always you, Edina tells the story of endlessly good-natured child narrator Bonnie as she negotiates family and school life in 1960s Britain. Most memorable is her crush on popular classmate Joanna Bayliss, who is alternately encouraging and dismissive, and Bonnie’s love for the Edina of the title, her daring, glamorous aunt, whose relationship with other family members proves to be far from simple.’
Diva Magazine
About her work
'Funny and sad. Enchanting and beguiling. VG Lee reaches parts of me other comediennes can’t reach.'
Frances Gapper
'VG Lee is funny, smart, clever, witty, not afraid to be honest and poignant at the same time.'
Stella Duffy
Deadpan style that observes the humorous side of the casual cruelty inherent in human behaviour.'
Time Out
Biography:
VG Lee is an author and a stand-up comedian. She was born in Birmingham but has gradually worked her way southwards and now lives and writes in Hastings, East Sussex. She has published three novels; The Comedienne, Diva Books, 2001; The Woman in Beige, Diva Books, 2003; Diary of a Provincial Lesbian, Onlywomen Press, 2005; and a collection of short stories, As You Step Outside, Tollington Press, 2008.
Her work has appeared in Chroma, Magma, Poetry Review and Mslexia. More recently her short stories have been published in Boys & Girls and Men & Women, two anthologies from Glasshouse Books.
In 2009, to celebrate her sixtieth year, she decided to become a stand-up comedian and perform at sixty venues. Sixty venues became ninety and she was a runner-up in the prestigious ‘New Act of the Year 2010’ at the Hackney Empire. She has appeared twice at the Edinburgh Festival.
