They Called Her Patience by Lorna Hill

They Called Her Patience by Lorna Hill

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I sometimes think that the nearest thing to literary Arcadia is Lorna Hill and the Northumberland countryside. It’s just so perfect to me, the way she pauses on a beat and suddenly you realise everything here is so endless and perfect and it might rain, maybe, for a brief second, but mainly it doesn’t because this is all about the glory of the moment: sun and blue sky and ponies and riding across the moor and eating luscious (always luscious) lunches and days that are full of nothing and everything and all the time in the world to enjoy it in. I ache for it, I love it: it’s perfect.

This is the start of a new series and if you know some of Hill’s other work, you’ll be familiar with some of the characters who appear here. The big new one is Judy, who is Freshly Relocated to the countryside and Not Keen on it. She butts heads and makes friends and buts heads and then there’s the pony bit and the moors bit and it’s just beautiful, utterly, ridiculously, lovely stuff. And yes, there’s the slightly chauvinistic chap who Just Knows Best and the girls are Highly Emotional but god, it’s somehow all brilliant because it’s in the hand of a born storyteller. (This, I think, is something I shall call ‘Seven Brides For Seven Brothers’ syndrome…).

As ever with books of this age, there will be some elements which have dated poorly. The pronounced one here is the name of Judy’s pony so please be aware of this upon reading and sharing with other readers.

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