Thursday 20 September 2012

The Colour of Milk by Nell Leyshon




The colour of milk is a really good book. It’s narrated by Mary who is quite a character,  and for that reason the book is good. Mary has hair the colour of milk, hence the title of the book. Her voice is that of a working-class farm girl from 1830, and she is also a bit of a blabbermouth never afraid to voice her opinion. She is also new to learning how to read and write which makes the text primitive in style. All these aspects make her voice very endearing to the reader (or at least to this particular reader).

The story covers the four seasons from Spring to Winter of 1830. The year begins with her working from sun up to sun down on the family farm with her three sisters and parents. Then she is sent to work at the local vicarage as a maid/nurse. Her dad gets paid for this so really she has little choice as to her circumstances and she is keen to remind people that when the opportunity arises. And so life goes on until things start going wrong for Mary, and because she is so endearing you have your heart-strings strung by the end, especially the last two pages where she reveals the reason she had to write the book in such an urgency.

Lovely.

(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is listed here.)

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