- Paperback: 304 pages
- Publisher: Tindal Street Press (21 May 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0955647665
- ISBN-13: 978-0955647666
- Product Dimensions: 21.4 x 13.6 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 367,417 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Tell it to the Bees
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Lydia Weekes is a beautiful young woman, although she hardly knows it. Her volatile husband all but ignores her and then he is gone completely, leaving her to support their son Charlie on her own with longer shifts at the local factory. A secretive schoolboy, Charlie is increasingly left to his own rich imagination - until he meets the town's new female GP, who encourages his interest in her beehives.
This is the 1950s: when patients sit in front of a doctor's home fire in a carpeted waiting room, abortion is illegal and sexual freedom a source of scandal. When a wary friendship between Charlie's mother and Dr Jean Markham becomes a startling and renewing love affair, their secret passion invites suspicion from Lydia's vindictive sister-in-law, Pam, threatening the safety of her son.
''A page-turning, involving read that makes you ask big questions about the world and its prejudices. Liberating and uplifting'' - Jackie Kay
''It gripped me like a vice, and I stopped doing anything else to get to the end and find out what was going to happen.'' - Andrew Davies
''Shaw s writing is lovely: elegant, subtle and haunting.'' - The Times
''Powerfully exposes the wrenches of prejudice . . . A tender and unlikely page-turner.'' - Financial Times
''A memorable evocation of an era when homosexuality was a crime and abortion illegal. One senses a committed and thoughtful writer intent on using her gifts. It will be interesting to see what she does next.'' - Times Literary Supplement
This is the 1950s: when patients sit in front of a doctor's home fire in a carpeted waiting room, abortion is illegal and sexual freedom a source of scandal. When a wary friendship between Charlie's mother and Dr Jean Markham becomes a startling and renewing love affair, their secret passion invites suspicion from Lydia's vindictive sister-in-law, Pam, threatening the safety of her son.
''A page-turning, involving read that makes you ask big questions about the world and its prejudices. Liberating and uplifting'' - Jackie Kay
''It gripped me like a vice, and I stopped doing anything else to get to the end and find out what was going to happen.'' - Andrew Davies
''Shaw s writing is lovely: elegant, subtle and haunting.'' - The Times
''Powerfully exposes the wrenches of prejudice . . . A tender and unlikely page-turner.'' - Financial Times
''A memorable evocation of an era when homosexuality was a crime and abortion illegal. One senses a committed and thoughtful writer intent on using her gifts. It will be interesting to see what she does next.'' - Times Literary Supplement
About the Author
Fiona Shaw lives in North Yorkshire, where she teaches at the University of York. Her best-selling non-fiction debut Out of Me, about postnatal depression, was shortlisted for the MIND prize.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A very good read,
By
This review is from: Tell it to the Bees (Paperback)
Fiona Shaw just gets better and better! This is a beautifully written and tender account of three intertwined lives - that of a bee keeping Doctor who lives on the hill, a single mother who works in the factory and reads detective novels to keep the loneliness at bay, and her thougthful imaginative son who learns how to navigate a life that takes several unexpected turns. The 1950s are bought evocatively to life in a novel full of emotional charge, fine detail, and poignant moments. Ideal for a summer read!
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tell it to The Bees A certain prize winner,
By
This review is from: Tell it to the Bees (Paperback)
A brilliantly written romance and an emotional roller coaster. Excellent and gripping story-telling. Great characters who come stunningly to life on the page. This book is superbly evocative of the fifties without overdoing the detail. A relationship develops between a working class mother and her doctor - while she struggles with the abusive father of her son Charlie, a wonderfully realised character who is realistically and sensitively written and through whose eyes we see and feel the world shatter and reform around him. Tell It to The Bees is moving and hopeful - and there are wonderful passages on bees and bee-keeping just at a time when hives are threatened by pollution. A great read for a couple of summer days in the garden or on holiday. A five star Book Prize certainty.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Page turner,
By
This review is from: Tell it to the Bees (Paperback)
Tell it to the Bees is a beautiful read. The three main characters are so real, and the world they inhabit so vivid, that it's a totally absorbing book. I read the first five chapters one night, and the rest of the book the next day non-stop. It made me think a lot about how society's attitudes towards women, love and family have changed (or not) since the fifties. It's written with warmth and intelligence and I would recommend it to anyone.
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