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    Girl With Dove: A Life Built By Books
    Unavailable
    Girl With Dove: A Life Built By Books
    Unavailable
    Girl With Dove: A Life Built By Books
    Audiobook7 hours

    Girl With Dove: A Life Built By Books

    Written by Sally Bayley

    Narrated by Sally Bayley

    3.5/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this audiobook

    ‘The word “mesmerising” is frequently applied to memoirs, but seldom as deservedly as in the case of Girl With Dove’ Financial Times

    ‘Reading is a form of escape and an avid reader is an escape artist…’

    Brilliantly original, funny and clever Honor Clark, Spectator, Book of the Year

    This audiobook includes an exclusive interview between the author, Sally Bayley, and a mentee of Sally’s, Georgie Newson, who first met when they read ‘Jane Eyre’ together. They talk about the stories that have been woven into the book, the reflective nature of literature, the influence of Jane Eyre on their lives, and much more.

    Growing up in a dilapidated house by the sea where men were forbidden, Sally’s childhood world was filled with mystery and intrigue. Hippies trailed through the kitchen looking for God – their leader was Aunt Di, who ruled the house with charismatic force. When Sally’s baby brother vanishes from his pram, she becomes suspicious of the activities going on around her. What happened to Baby David and the woman called Poor Sue? And where did all the people singing and wailing prayers in the front room suddenly go?

    Disappearing into a world of books and reading, Sally adopts the tried and tested methods of Miss Marple. Taking books for hints and clues, she turns herself into a reading detective. Her discovery of Jane Eyre marks the beginning of a vivid journey through Victorian literature where she also finds the kind, eccentric figure of Charles Dickens’ Betsey Trotwood. These characters soon become her heroines, acting as a part of an alternative family, offering humour and guidance during many difficult moments in Sally’s life.

    Combining the voices of literary characters with those of her real-life counterparts, Girl With Dove reads as a magical series of strange encounters, climaxing with a comic performance of Shakespeare in the children’s home where Sally is eventually sent.

    Weaving literary classics with a young girl’s coming of age story, this is a book that testifies to the transformative power of reading and the literary imagination. Mixing fairy tale, literary classics, nursery rhymes and folklore, it is the story of a child’s adventure in wonderland and search for truth in an adult world often cast in deep shadow.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins Publishers
    Release dateMay 17, 2018
    ISBN9780008226886
    Unavailable
    Girl With Dove: A Life Built By Books
    Author

    Sally Bayley

    Sally Bayley is a writer and lecturer in English at Hertford College, Oxford. She is the author of a number of books including Girl With Dove and No Boys Play Here. She writes and performs A Reading Life, A Writing Life, a podcast for a world in crisis. Her website is: https://sallybayley.com/

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    Reviews for Girl With Dove

    3.5/5

    9 ratings1 review

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    • 3/5
      When Sally Bayley was around the age of four, her baby brother, who had been put in the garden in his pram near the roses, suddenly vanishes. This single incident was pivotal in changing Sally's life; her mother went to bed 'for a very long time'. This was just one of a series of events that Sally had; to say she had an unconventional upbringing would be an understatement. The house close to the sea where she lived with her mother and other siblings was dilapidated and filthy, they shared it with Aunt Di, a hippy with plenty of charisma and influence, her grandmother and what seemed to be a never-ending stream of people. No men were allowed to live in the house, though on rare occasions, one might be permitted to visit, including her father once, though that was marred with peculiarities.

      To cope with this Sally lost herself in a world of books. On discovering Agatha Christie she turns detective to try and discover what had happened to her brother. Reading Jane Eyre is the beginning of a journey into the rich landscape of Victorian literature. These characters that she discovers in the covers of the books offer comfort and friendship, something that is lacking in her chaotic home life. She takes a look at herself in the mirror one day and all of a sudden she realises that the pale apparition staring back is her. This sliver of a girl takes herself to the doctor; something that never happened as visiting the doctor was forbidden in her family. Realising that things are really not right, she seeks further help and hands herself into care.

      The first two parts of the book have a vague narrative as she weaves between fictional characters and the reality of her life as a child in that messed up house. It is not particularly easy to follow, it was almost like reading the story through a fogged up mirror at times. I fully understand why she has written it this way, it reflects just what she was experiencing when living in that household. The final part of the book is the most visceral though, as Sally realises that this is not normal and the act of involving outside parties to help provokes the ire of the matriarchs of the household. It did make me wonder just how these children were under the radar of the authorities for so long. There are elements that Bayley does not revisit in the final part and that left me wondering what had happened. These blurry memories are her recollection of a childhood that many others would have preferred to have forgotten.