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    The Courtyard
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    The Courtyard
    Unavailable
    The Courtyard
    Ebook407 pages7 hours

    The Courtyard

    By Marcia Willett

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    In this latest early novel from the beloved Marcia Willett, Henry Morley can only wonder at the good fortune that has given him a vivacious wife and a beloved family home called Nethercombe. When he remodels a cluster of cottages known as the Courtyard, he is delighted to welcome a group of charming tenants. But soon disaster strikes, and everyone must come together to face the crises head on. Marcia Willett's ardent fans will savor a return visit with some of her most endearing characters.

    The Courtyard is a gem of a story to be savored.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateOct 2, 2007
    ISBN9781429992725
    Unavailable
    The Courtyard
    Author

    Marcia Willett

    Born in Somerset, in the west country of England, on the day the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Marcia Willett was the youngest of five girls. Her family was unconventional and musical, but Marcia chose to train as a ballet dancer. Unfortunately her body did not develop with the classical proportions demanded by the Royal Ballet, so she studied to be a ballet teacher. Her first husband was a naval officer in the submarine service, with whom she had a son, Charles, now married and training to be a clergyman. Her second husband, Rodney, himself a writer and broadcaster, encouraged Marcia to write novels. She has published several novels in England; A Week in Winter is the first to be published in the United States.

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    Reviews for The Courtyard

    4/5

    21 ratings4 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Another wonderful story by Marcia Willett, an older book, but I will get to all that she has written. They are refreshing stories set in small villages or towns around England and never the same plot twice, always some mystery put in for good measure and never sappy or too sweet.
    • 4/5
      I must have been tired when I picked up the next Marcia Willett from the shelves, because I had quite forgotten that I re-read this one only fourteen months ago. I didn't actually realise that until about half-way through, although I was a bit surprised at how much I remembered of the book, thinking I had read it at least eight years ago.

      It's a pleasant light read about a group of people who learn to cope together, with financial difficulties. Nice charactersation; particularly the quiet, reserved Nell and the similarly reserved elderly Gussie, who strike up an unexpected friendship at the start of the book.

      There are some shocks in this novel, which I had quite forgotten in the eight years since I first read it, but remembered in the fourteen months since I last read it. However I didn't remember how it ended, or how all the problems were resolved, and I enjoyed it afresh.
    • 4/5
      Written in 1995 this is a feel good story similar to those that Maeve Binchy and Rosamund Pilcher wrote. Like Binchy, Willett creates a group of interconnected people and follows them through the ups and downs in their lives. She begins building the group when Gussie, an older single woman and Nell, a young married woman meet in a tea shop. At first they don't seem to be particularly compatible but beginning with the loan of a hat for a wedding they become stalwart friends, bringing the foibles of friends and family with them. This is the first book I've read by Willett and one of her earliiest. I have a trilogy she wrote on the TBR as well. It will be awhile before I'm ready for another neat and tied with a bow ending but one of these days when in need a comfort read it I'll give it a try.
    • 4/5
      A thoughtful novel, appealing to the introverted feminine penchant for studying characters, decisions and consequences in a personal context. When an elderly woman and a young woman meet by chance, each are facing private struggles with finances and relations. Through the amiable connection they form they manage to assist each other with frightful trials and not a few tribulations. The recession is hitting them very hard and the costs of living also - and meanwhile the opportunities to work for a wage have contracted as have property values. This is a novel which is conveyed always through a description of the mannered conversations and actions of the intimately portrayed characters as they struggle to achieve stability in their lives as events swirl them into different economic and social puzzles. A well-written story, but it will carry you into a pensive mood about the deterioration of the landscape that has seeped in since the economic situation has become more constrained by the organization of the current commerce frameworks.