Customer Reviews

Fanny McBride

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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I loved Fanny McBride. She touched my heart. I cried when she cried. I was happy when she was happy. I could hardly put the book down until I finished. I am a Catherine Cookson collector and Fannie McBride is one of her best. If you like Fanny McBride, you will also love The Fifteen Streets.

Somewhere in England in 1959, there is a large house turned into apartments called Mulhatten's Hall. In the apartment right below the attic one, lives Fanny McBride. Fanny is old, widowed (and glad of it), honest to the point of bluntness, and even tho she has only a few pennies to her name, generous to a fault. Anytime someone needs extra coal or a shilling or two, Fanny is the one to go to. And Fanny loves to laugh. But don't cross Fanny! If her behavior towards the "upstart" Nellie Flannagen is anything to go by, no, you don't want to cross Fanny!

Out of twelve children, Fanny has loved and favored one: Jack. Jack has done what Fanny considers unforgiveable tho and up and married a lady of a different relgion. She hasn't seen her Jack since. While drama unfolds with the new family in the attic above and Fanny struggles to come to terms with the fact that her last child will soon be leaving her home, Christmas comes and goes with no sign of Jack. Will he come back?

Fanny also takes a job and these parts bring their own hillarity to the story. I laughed so many times. The ending took me by complete surprise. Fabulous story. I recommend it for anyone who wants to be touched by both laughter and a lonely woman's heartache.

Fanny McBride - both the character and the book - were wonderful! I love all of Catherine Cookson's works, but this character is one of her most engaging, yet. The book is an easy read and I didn't want to put the book down until I had finished it!

I liked Fanny McBride. It's a story that involves everyday people from several decades ago in England. Maybe not very educated people but fun. Tempers flare words are said its fun to have such a book come alive in my head while I read. Catherine Cookson always makes her characters come alive so that you feel you actually know them. Some you want to know some you would not like to.
Catherine Cookson was a very prolific writer and so far I have read only 4 of her novels so there is much reading pleasure ahead.

What a delightful, charming and different novel. Ms. Cookson writes so well that you don't even know you're reading. You are lost in a zone somewhere and enjoying every minute.