Turning for Home [Paperback]

Sarah Challis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 24, 2002

A cantankerous, elegant old woman sits in her beautiful Somerset house while her family secretly plots to evict her. In the garden is Lady Pamela's last loyal retainer, out at grass is her one remaining racehorse, and in London is the man she should have married - still her dearest friend. Maeve Delaney, streetwise and outrageous, and sole applicant for the job of companion to Lady Pamela, bursts into the old house like a firework. As open warfare settles into an wary truce between the two women, Maeve sets her heart on bringing the great racehorse, Irish Dancer, out of retirement, and everything changes.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The ties between generations are at the heart of this romantic saga set outside London. At 84, Lady Pamela desperately wishes to remain in her home, but her calculating daughter-in-law wants to send her away so she can modernize the charming cottage. To the rescue comes 26-year-old Maeve Delaney, a companion whose headlong approach to life is just what Pamela needs to get her out of the doldrums. Maeve feels emotionally abandoned by her own parents, who divorced when she was 12, and Lady Pamela has always longed for a daughter to replace her Lizzie, who died much too young. Into the mix are thrown Maeve's best friend, Sophie, a single mother with twins; Matt, the handsome local vet who loves them both; Sam, Pamela's beau of over 50 years, whom she should have married; and Irish Dancer, the injured horse Pamela longs to bring back for one last race. Challis' second novel reads like a sexier Rosamunde Pilcher, packed with robust characters, romance for both young and old, and heart-tugging tragedy. Deborah Donovan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

'Excellently-written, with a gripping ending' -- WILTSHIRE TIMES 20020614 'Turning for Home is not a conventional romance, and it certainly isn't an Aga saga. It's touching, funny and exciting' -- Blackmore Vale Magazine 20011130

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Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Headline Paperbacks (June 24, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0747264996
• ISBN-13: 978-0747264996
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1.3 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,405,743 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Characters Come to Life, February 3, 2004

By 

BeachReader (Delaware) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Turning for Home (Hardcover)

This was a sweet, heart-tugging book with a memorable and well-developed cast of characters of many different types. It takes place mainly in a small rural village in the countryside outside London.

The elderly and often-cranky Lady Pamela hires the vivacious and headstrong young Maeve Delaney as her companion. After an initial period of awkwardness, the two women arrive at a truce and actually begin to enjoy each other's company. Lady Pamela lost her only daughter many years ago and Maeve lost her mother to emotional detachement when she was young, so they form and interesting attachment, although never as "mother and daughter" per se.

To cope with her boredom with country living, Maeve makes Lady Pamela's prematurely retired racehorse her pet project. She is determined that he race again and this goal inspires Lady Pamela as well.

This was a lovely, feel-good book that immediately engaged me. Not great literature, but worth reading.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cozy English Drama of a Young Girl, an Elderly Woman, and the Horse that Changed Their Lives, October 25, 2006

By 

Antoinette Klein (Hoover, Alabama USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Turning for Home (Hardcover)

Maeve Delaney is a free-spirited Irish girl down on her luck in England. By chance, she becomes companion to the bedridden Lady Pamela living alone in the rural countryside. This is the story of how this highly irreverent, vivacious, and totally charming young woman transforms every life she touches and makes an indelible mark on the village.

She seems totally wrong for the job, but Maeve reminds Lady Pamela so much of her own headstrong youth, that a tenuous bond forms between the two. Lady Pamela still grieves for the daughter she lost and for the secret she carries. It isn't long before Maeve has the woman not only out of bed but fighting her wimpy son and his domineering wife for control of her own destiny. Maeve also finds the one catalyst that will infuse Pamela with a new determination to live---a has-been racehorse, appropriately named Irish Dancer, is pulled out of retirement and trained to compete again. Infusing both women with the adrenaline rush and excitement they crave, Irish Dancer provides some of the novel's most exciting scenes.

The cast of supporting characters is well-defined and provides deliciously romantic as well as tender and poignant subplots. Included in this are: Sophie, Maeve's dearest friend and the mother of twins adapting to her husband's rejection; Matt Digby, the veterinarian who loves them both; his father, David Digby who finds himself flattered by Maeve's friendship; Henry, Pamela's milquetoast son who fears Bunty, his shrew of a wife; Sam, the love of Pamela's life who was never able to marry her; Mohammed, Maeve's exotic friend; Flora and Freddy, Sophie's precocious twins; and Diana Tripp, the put-upon secretary who instantly bonds with Maeve in a covert alliance.

The reader won't soon forget the irrepressible Maeve and the lives she transforms. Warm, romantic, and touching, this cozy story is compelling from its breezy opening to its gripping ending.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars interesting relationship drama, May 10, 2003

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Turning for Home (Hardcover)

Twenty-six years old Maeve Delaney needs a job fast as she is running out of money and does not want to ask her wealthy dad for cash. She reads a newspaper ad looking for a caretaker companion to a disabled elderly woman and decides the job is perfect for her. She makes up a phony résumé and obtains the position though she seems too young to do the job. The employer Henry Benham wants to simply placate his bossy wife by hiring someone to care for his octogenarian mother.

Maeve and Lady Pamela get on quite well together as the youngster ignores the older woman's rants and provides a breath of freshness to the geriatric invalid. Soon she encourages Pamela's lover Sam Elwes to spend more time with his beloved and persuades her charge to begin racing her horse Irish Dancer. As the two generations get acquainted a loving bond similar to a grandmother and granddaughter form that gives Pamela a reason to live, but what will happen once Maeve moves on?

This is an interesting relationship drama that serves as a comparison between the "old" and the "new". Maeve is an intriguing protagonist who combines the impishness of Holly Golightly with the right degree of responsibility for the safety of her companion. She gives Pamela a reason to live unlike the elderly woman's wimpy son or her authoritative daughter-in-law, who have done everything in public tastefully just short of announcing the wake. Fans who relish a modern day tale of manners will want to read this English character study.

Harriet Klausner