When Percy and Betty Harlency abandon their seedy Streatham pub, for the Copper Kettle Tearoom in Kent, life for their daughter April changes dramatically. She is befriended by the wonderfully dangerous Ruby, whose red hair and brutal home life emphasise her love of fire, and by the immaculately dressed Mr Greenridge who likes to follow her around the village. Mingling the innocent with the sinister and laced with the tragic and the bizarre, this is a rare evocation of a 1950s childhood. (19970423)
The Orchard on Fire
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Amazon Review
This intimate, intensely seen novel was short-listed for the 1996 Booker Prize. Shena Mackay's six previous novels have won her critical admiration and a popular audience in England, but her work has not received due recognition in the United States yet. The Orchard on Fire is a concise, domestic novel set in the village of Stonebridge, where the parents of April Harlency have come in 1953 to run the local teashop. April's private reveries and her entanglement with the grim family life of her best friend, Ruby Richards, fill up a vivid and dramatic year in the wonderfully distinctive life of Stonebridge.
Review
A harvest festival of sensuous detail, intimate, rich... Compulsively readable (Daily Telegraph )
Mackay moved this reader to tears, not from grief, but from joy. Now there's a skill (Fay Weldon Mail on Sunday )
An extremely beautiful and funny novel... The Orchard on Fire is probably Mackay's most perfect book, produced with a technical adroitness and shapeliness which one can only envy (Philip Hensher Guardian )
Shena Mackay is a writer in prime: at the height of her powers... Her prose is flawlessly seductive and comic, confidently witty and sensual (Julie Myerson Independent on Sunday )
Wholly delightful... Shena Mackay is an assured artist (A. N. Wilson Evening Standard )
Mackay moved this reader to tears, not from grief, but from joy. Now there's a skill (Fay Weldon Mail on Sunday )
An extremely beautiful and funny novel... The Orchard on Fire is probably Mackay's most perfect book, produced with a technical adroitness and shapeliness which one can only envy (Philip Hensher Guardian )
Shena Mackay is a writer in prime: at the height of her powers... Her prose is flawlessly seductive and comic, confidently witty and sensual (Julie Myerson Independent on Sunday )
Wholly delightful... Shena Mackay is an assured artist (A. N. Wilson Evening Standard )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
'The Orchard on Fire' chronicles events in 1953 in the life of eight-year old April Harlency, whose parents have recently moved to the village of Stonehenge in Kent to run a tearoom. She becomes best friends with fiery, tomboyish Ruby, whose parents are proprietors of the local pub, and together they share experiences with an array of village characters including creepy Mr Greenridge; strict schoolmistress Miss Fay; bohemian artists Dittany Codrington and Bobs Rix, and village communists, the Silver family.
Mackay's writing is simply beautiful: there were many occasions when I re-read whole paragraphs to savour the language. 'The Orchard on Fire' brilliantly evokes village life in the '50s through convincing period details, dialogue and - most of all - development of a diverse range of characters whose mindsets mirror the values and behaviours of the times. Without excessive nostalgia, Mackay transports the reader back to arguably gentler, more innocent times - whilst warning of social evils that may lurk beneath the veneer of respectability. In a market-place awash with novels depicting childhood experiences, 'The Orchard On Fire' stands out for its realism and honesty and, above all, elegantly-crafted prose.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
In my opinion, this is Shena MacKay's best novel. In Coronation Year, Betty and Percy Harlency, with their small daughter, April, move from London to a small village in Kent called Stonebridge, to take over The Copper Kettle Tearoom. The Copper Kettle is a charming, but not financially prosperous, establishment.
When April meets the tomboyish, fiery, ginger-haired Ruby, their friendship is instantly sealed. The girls are staunch allies who conspire together in every way possible. Their secret signal is the "lone cry of the peewit;" their hideaway is a railway carriage where they are continually up to mischief. When the two girls finally manage to pry open the door of the carriage they stand and gaze "in the smell of trapped time."
It is this smell of trapped time, this nostalgia for the emotions of the past, that The Orchard on Fire conjures so expertly. MacKay is reminiscent of Proust in this extraordinarily evocative novel and we feel intimately connected to April and to her emotional life. MacKay, usually a brilliant writer, excels in The Orchard on Fire and we can hear the buzz of the insects and the bluebottles, smell the overgrown weeds and the lush summer grass and picture the family's new home at The Copper Kettle.
The small English village where April lives is a bit unconventional as are April's parents; the duo are unlikely political radicals and MacKay manages to introduce a Bohemian element into the story in the gentle, pretentious artist characters of Bobs Rix and Dittany Codrington, who is "like the Willow Fairy in Fairies of the Trees by Cicely Mary Barker."
One of the best sections of this wonderfully-written book comes when The Copper Kettle is chosen to host a weekend party for Bobs and Dittany and their artist friends.
... Read more ›7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
I simply love this book! Shena McKay has the most magnificent eye for detail, and managed to evoke memories from my own childhood through her characters. Although the story was told through the eyes of April, much of it focussed on her love for her best friend, the sparky and ebullient, Ruby. Their friendship was exemplary and the girls remained strong and resilient despite suffering abuse at the hands of adults in their lives. I enjoyed the accurate details used to illustrate the childrens imaginative play, e.g. using a red smartie for lipstick etc.. and was heartened by the joy shown by the children when presented with simple gifts such as a shiny pencil or a plastic bracelet! Even though the book tackles serious issues of child abuse, the story is told with much humour and Ruby and April's frank observations, and childlike interpretations of events were hilarious. I would guess the story was based on a real friendship, as the characters were well developed and believable. This book made me laugh in many parts and I felt sad at the very end....that was partly because it ended ! Do read it.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
This is a wonderful, unput-downable book, the first I've read by Shena MacKay but it definitely won't be the last! The book's heroine, April, returns to the village where she grew up in the fifties and reflects on the years of her childhood that she spent there. The book is filled with larger than life characters - April's parents who run the village tea-shop, the creepy Mr Greenridge, who is obsessed with April and, most of all, her best friend in the whole world, Ruby. It's about friendship and family and growing up and it really makes you think (and cry!). It reminded me very much of both 'The Go-Between' by L P Hartley, which is one of my favourite books and 'Behind the Scenes At the Museum' by Kate Atkinson. It's funny and touching and beautifully written. Lead me to the next Shena MacKay novel, please!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By Caren Firth
Format:Paperback
This is a story of childhood friendship and village life in 50's England, seen through a young girl's eyes. Sheila Mackay manages to combine suspense and ill-boding with beautiful description of sentiment; at the end, I could hardly focus on the page through the tears. Once finished, you just want to pick the book up and start again.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Moving journey into the past
There is something about this book that I really connect with;themes such a friendship, a sense of belonging, an ownership of things past, all work together to make the reading of... Read more
Published on 20 April 2011 by Bookwise
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful sensation of nostalgia
For me, the best part of this book is its creation of a sense of nostalgia, showing how we colour the past. Read more
Published on 13 May 2010 by V. Charles
5.0 out of 5 stars
To be savoured
As my subject line states, this is a book to be savoured like a glass of wine or cool water on a hot day. Read more
Published on 8 Aug 2009 by fizz boot
4.0 out of 5 stars
a photo album of the 50s
Nostalgia has the effect of painting the past in vivid colours that make the present seem pallid in comparison. Read more
Published on 8 April 2005 by Is
4.0 out of 5 stars
Tragic at points, tender at other moments
Another book about growing up in the fifties, this time in small-town Britain. A tragic story about two girls growing up, one which gets beaten at home by her parents, whereas the... Read more
Published on 12 Oct 2003 by Gerben Kappert
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is one of the most beautiful books I have ever read.
I first read 'The Orchard on Fire' several years ago, and to this day, it still remains one of my favourites. Read more
Published on 19 Jan 2001 by whitewitch981@hotmail.com
5.0 out of 5 stars
Friendship is all that matters.
The Orchard on Fire was a very interesting read It encompases the themes of true friendship and of growing up. Read more
Published on 10 Dec 2000
4.0 out of 5 stars
This book was a very interesting read.
The Orchard on Fire was a very enlightening read. It contains the themes of friendship and of coming of age. It also offers a peek into 1950s England. Read more
Published on 7 Dec 2000
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