Beating About the Bush: Amazon.co.uk: Linda Taylor: Books

Product Description

Product Description
Ella Norton has opted for the simple life. Gone are the power suits and an executive career, in are the wellies, a horticulture course and Matt, her immensely sexy tutor. With two lodgers - gorgeous, worldly Miranda and unglamorous, nave Faith - to help with the DIY, it can't go wrong. Except that Miranda and Faith hate each other, Matt has a wife, and the DIY lands them in casualty. But it's when tall, abrasive and engaged CID man, Jaz Singh sets up camp in Ella's bedroom that life starts to spiral seriously out of control. Embracing the simple life has never been so complicated.

About the Author
Linda Taylor worked for the Civil Service in London and Angola, and as a vice-consul in Sri Lanka before teaching in Japan. On her return, she read English at Oxford. When her first novel, Reading Between the Lines, was published in 1998 it immediately became a Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller; her second novel, Going Against the Grain, was published in 1999 to great acclaim. She lives in Kent.

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Customer Reviews

12 Reviews

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

Average Customer Review

4.7 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You won't want it to end, 5 April 2001

By A Customer

Beating About the Bush is the second novel by Linda Taylor that I've read (first being Reading Between the Lines) and I've really enjoyed them both. Taylor takes the formula that's popular today - flawed woman finds redemption through love (let's face it, that's really what it ends up being) - and enriches it with masterful storytelling. She's got a wonderful command of the language and infuses humor in a practical way. Her characters are not perfect - but seem like people that you'd like to know all the same. The main characters in this book surely have their flaws - Ella, our "heroine" makes a habit of getting involved with married men - but Taylor manages to convey this flaws as understandable. We may not like how some of the characters act, but we empathize. Ella (our "heroine") lets the police use her house as a "stake out" on a drug case, through this she meets Jaz. Jaz is an English-born policeman of Indian heritage who is engaged to be married to a woman of Indian descent, via a traditional arranged marriage. The basic plot device may seem far-fetched, but it provides us with the opportunity to see how two people who seem so different on the surface can be so similar, can want the same things and fear the same things. All in all I found this a very solid book - I plan to dig up all of Linda Taylor's other books, as well.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny, intelligent and imaginative., 25 Jul 2000

By A Customer

I enjoyed BATB enormously. For me it was an extremely funny read, which often made me laugh out loud. The plot itself was very well thought out and was both original and highly credible; throughout, this book was intelligent, imaginatively written and articulate. The characters too were very tenably defined. What I also liked about BATB was that it lacked cliches, trendy product placement (at last - a book which doesn't have to refer to Harvey Nicholls), and self-loathing, angst-ridden heroines which seem all too common to this genre.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars wow! wacky and real at the same time - giggles galore, 8 Jul 2000

By A Customer

I bought this at Stansted airport and finished it on the way back - on a business trip. It brought the wonderful wierdness of human behaviour right back into focus for me. Not just a good read, but as usual a great mix of characters we all know (or are....) and their mums! Sounds corny but Linda sees life as it is and has people talking to eachothjer from all backgrounds and situations instead of the usual trite "we all went to the same school boring girlie stuff that we usually get from the "yuppie women writers" that get stuffed down our throats in the book shops. This one has a bit of suspense and melodrama and even a very tastefully written sexy scene. The hero is yummy and the even the small-part-players have something to say. Unusual lady Miss T who can move into minor criminal fiction with success - maybe she should do more of it?

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Linda Taylor is developing her story-telling really well
Havig read Linda Taylor's earlier books I thought this one had a really good story-line, some excellent insights into personal relationships - and an increasing amount of humour... Read more

Published on 9 May 2001 by Martin

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Read But
I found the book very entertaining, but I think it lacked the insights of "Reading between the lines" and instead was full of cliche lines and characters.

Published on 13 Oct 2000

5.0 out of 5 stars compulsive reading, unputdownable, brilliantly funny
I was up until 3am reading because I kept saying just one more chapter but found it impossible to put the book down. Read more

Published on 18 Aug 2000 by kerry.rampton@ntlworld.com

5.0 out of 5 stars A great read
Linda Taylor is such a funny writer! This book made me laugh out loud. The plot is clever and you really care what happens to the characters. Read more

Published on 16 Aug 2000

4.0 out of 5 stars persevere at first the second half is unputdownable.
Beating about the bush, Ella, I had nothing in common with her, Couldnt understand why she had chosen the pathway she had. Read more

Published on 4 Aug 2000

5.0 out of 5 stars Marvellous... I never wanted this book to end!
There I was at the book store about to get on a plane to Brazil and there it was, Ms Taylor's third book! Read more

Published on 15 Jul 2000

5.0 out of 5 stars Real women - real lives - really wonderful!
I bought this book on the strength of the back cover blurb - Ella sounded just like me - looking for the simple life and not quite finding it, with nothing going exactly as she... Read more

Published on 12 Jul 2000

5.0 out of 5 stars This one hits you where it hurts!
wow! well the first time I have ever read a book from cover to cover in one day and stuffed the rest of the world! Read more

Published on 8 Feb 2000

5.0 out of 5 stars Warm, witty and wonderful
Having read Linda Taylor's two previous novels, I couldn't wait for this to come out in paberback - so I splashed out for the hb edition. It was money well spent! Read more

Published on 2 Feb 2000

› See all 12 customer reviews...

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Beating About the Bush (Paperback)

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