Mrs. Hartley and the Growth Centre [Import] [Paperback]

Philippa Gregory (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; Film & TV Tie-in Ed edition (April 5, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140240225
• ISBN-13: 978-0140240221
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 4.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 1.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,892,144 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born in Kenya in 1954, Philippa Gregory moved to England with her family and was educated in Bristol and at the National Council for the Training of Journalists course in Cardiff. She worked as a senior reporter on the Portsmouth News, and as a journalist and producer for BBC radio.

Philippa obtained a BA degree in history at the University of Sussex in Brighton and a PhD at Edinburgh University in 18th-century literature. Her first novel, Wideacre, was written as she completed her PhD and became an instant world wide bestseller. On its publication, she became a full-time writer, and now lives with her family on a small farm in the North of England.

Her knowledge of gothic 18th century novels led to Philippa writing Wideacre, which was followed by a haunting sequel, The Favoured Child, and the delightful happy ending of the trilogy: Meridon. This novel was listed in Feminist Book Fortnight and for the Romantic Novel of the Year at the same time - one of the many instances of Philippa's work appealing to very different readers.

The trilogy was followed by The Wise Woman, a dazzling, disturbing novel of dark powers and desires set against the rich tapestry of the Reformation, and by Fallen Skies, an evocative realistic story set after the First World War. Her novel A Respectable Trade took her back to the 18th century where her knowledge of the slave trade and her home town of Bristol produced a haunting novel of slave trading and its terrible human cost. This is the only modern novel to explore the tragedies of slavery in England itself, and features a group of kidnapped African people trying to find their freedom in the elegant houses of 18th century Clifton. Gregory adapted her book for a highly acclaimed BBC television production which won the prize for drama from the Commission for Racial Equality and was shortlisted for a BAFTA for the screenplay.

Next came two of Gregory's best-loved novels, Earthly Joys and Virgin Earth, based on the true-life story of father and son John Tradescant working in the upheaval of the English Civil War. In these works Gregory pioneered the genre which has become her own: fictional biography, the true story of a real person brought to life with painstaking research and passionate verve.

The flowering of this new style was undoubtedly The Other Boleyn Girl, a runaway best-seller which stormed the US market and then went worldwide telling the story of the little-known sister to Anne Boleyn. Now published in 26 countries with more than a million copies in print in the US alone, this is becoming a classic historical novel, winning the Parker Pen Novel of the Year award 2002, and the Romantic Times fictional biography award. The Other Boleyn Girl was adapted for the BBC as a single television drama and a film is now in production starring Scarlett Johansson as Mary Boleyn, Natalie Portman as Anne Boleyn and Eric Bana as Henry VIII.

A regular contributor to newspapers and magazines, with short stories, features and reviews, Philippa is also a frequent broadcaster and a regular contestant on Round Britain Quiz for BBC Radio 4 and the Tudor expert for Channel 4's Time Team.

She lives in the North of England with her husband and two children and in addition to interests that include riding, walking, skiing and gardening (an interest born from research into the Tradescant family for her novel, Virgin Earth), she also runs a small charity building wells in school gardens in The Gambia. Fifty-six wells have been built by UK donors to date.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Fascinatingly awful..., January 1, 2011

By 

Hazel Addams "Bookish Blond Punk" (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Alice Hartley's Happiness (Paperback)

I struggled through this, though thankfully it was a quick read. Gregory does manage to maintain her reader friendly prose, but... As the other reviewer mentioned, no character is likable, but that isn't really the problem. In much of Gregory's other works even characters making horrible choices are compelling and understood evoking reader sympathy. Their values and interests and backgrounds are explored and through this, their characters have depth. This depth is missing in this novel. Several comments in the narrative suggest that the author has no sympathy for the narcissistic-earth-mother-wack-job that is Alice Hartley.

The rest of cast are improbable characters, [I think these hint at minor plot developments, but others may see it as a spoiler, so if you're worried, skip to the next paragraph] who go on absurdly unlikely adventures. These including a woman who, having taken to her bed for roughy 50 years meets the lead character and begins hopping around happily and embarking on absurd ventures. Where were the bed sores? The atrophied muscles? The reflection on a wasted life? And then there's the improbable wedging of two dolphins (typically 7 to 13 feet long) into the backseat of a car (typically 5 feet wide) suggesting the book needed an editor capable of fact checking. Actually I kept wondering if Gregory and her publisher were in a fight over this silly book given just how weak it was compared to her usual standards.

The vaguely interesting elements of the story lay in the interactions between characters. Alice Hartley is a nutter, but away from her husband she manages to put together and lead a stupid, silly sex cult thing. She sees and exploits potential out of the other dysfunctional nutters who gather around her, but in the presence of her husband, she feels self-conscious and stupid. While he's a one dimensional prat, she's been content to let him demoralize her for years and suddenly leaves in a melodramatic tantrum. How this tanty qualifies her to heal other women who see their disappointing husbands as the reason their lives suck while taking no responsibility for themselves is unclear. Of course quick fixes (practice telling your husband to change your squalling brat's diapers) are about as unrealistic as that sudden reinvigoration of the bedridden character mentioned earlier, so...

The book's lack of depth make it seem a parable, but I'm not certain of the message it's trying to send. Don't be pathetic? Don't berate your wife? If you're going to deliver babies, make sure you've done more than just seen them on tv? Avoid starting idiot sex-mother-earth-goddess-rubbish if you're over thirteen? Despite all these failings, I still strangely enjoyed reading it - but it did have a train wreck quality.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars My Least Favorite of Gregory's Books, November 19, 2010

By 

Veronica Mariano (Somewhere in the Middle, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Alice Hartley's Happiness (Paperback)

I love Philippa Gregory's novels but this was one of the worst books I ever read. It truly had no point, the story was all over the place and the characters are not even likeable. There were some comedic elements to the plot, but otherwise left me wishing I hadn't wasted my time.