The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell

    

                                                    

Hardback: 438 pages

Genre: Historical Fiction

Publisher: Tinder Press, Headline Publishing Group 2022.

Source: Tywyn Public Library

First Sentence: Lucrezia is taking her seat at the long dining table, which is polished to a watery gleam and spread with dishes, inverted cups, a woven circlet of fir.

Favourite Quote: “Sadness keeps attempting to tie weights to her wrists and ankles, therefore she has to keep moving, she has to outpace it.” 

Review Quote: 'Her narrative enchantment will wrest suspense and surprise out of a death foretold' Financial Times

Literary Awards: Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Historical Fiction (2022)

Setting: Italy

My Opinion:  I have been a fan of Maggie O'Farrell's writing for over twenty years! Beautifully descriptive literary prose and cleverly woven storylines that have never disappointed me as a reader. In her latest novel ‘The MarriagePortrait’ she has taken the historic real life characters, Alfonso II d’Este, Duke of Ferrara and his first wife Lucrezia de Medici, Duchess of Ferrara and woven the storyline around their short marriage of just three years.

The retelling of this true story of the untimely death of the young duchess Lucrezia, which may have been, according to history, at the hands of her husband is an evocative read. One becomes immersed in the Italy of the C16 with the descriptions that Lucrezia gives us of her lifestyle.

Maggie O’Farrell in her renowned descriptive style of writing has turned this sad episode from history into a literary and readable story. Certainly one of my favourites for this year and therefore, highly recommended.  

Previous Reviews:   Hamnet.   Instructions for a Heatwave

Precis Courtesy of Goodreads:

I thought I had made myself clear. I want something that conveys her majesty, her bloodline. Do you understand? She is no ordinary mortal. Treat her thus.' 

Florence, the 1560s. Lucrezia, third daughter of Cosimo de' Medici, is free to wander the palazzo at will, wondering at its treasures and observing its clandestine workings. But when her older sister dies on the eve of marriage to Alfonso d'Este, heir to the Duke of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio, Lucrezia is thrust unwittingly into the limelight: Alfonso is quick to request her hand in marriage, and her father to accept on her behalf.

Having barely left girlhood, Lucrezia must now make her way in a troubled court whose customs are opaque and where her arrival is not universally welcomed. Perhaps most mystifying of all is her husband himself, Alfonso. Is he the playful sophisticate he appears before their wedding, the aesthete happiest in the company of artists and musicians, or the ruthless politician before whom even his formidable sisters seem to tremble?

As Lucrezia sits in uncomfortable finery for the painting which is to preserve her image for centuries to come, one thing becomes worryingly clear. In the court's eyes, she has one duty: to provide the heir who will shore up the future of the Ferrarese dynasty. Until then, for all of her rank and nobility, her future hangs entirely in the balance.

Author Profile

                                                     Photo courtesy of Wikipedia 

Maggie O'Farrell was born on 27th May 1972 in Coleraine, Northern    Ireland. She is married to the author William Sutcliffe and they live in Edinburgh with their three children.

Novels

• After You'd Gone (2000)
• My Lover's Lover (2002)
• The Distance Between Us (2004)
• The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox (2007)
• The Hand That First Held Mine (2010)
• Instructions for a Heatwave (2013)
• This Must Be the Place (2016)
• Hamnet (2020), Tinder Press ISBN 978-1-4722-2379-1
• The Marriage Portrait (2022), Tinder Press ISBN 978-1-4722-2384-5

Autobiography/Memoir

• I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death (2017)

For Children

• Where Snow Angels Go, Walker Books, illustrated by Daniela Jaglenka Terrazzini (2020)
• The Boy Who Lost His Spark, Walker Books, illustrated by Daniela Jaglenka Terrazzini (2022)

Photograph and Biographical Information courtesy of the following sites.

 Goodreads - Author Profile    Amazon Author Profile  Facebook - Maggie O'Farrell

Maggie O'Farrell - Official Website.   Wikipedia - Maggie O'Farrell

Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

 

Hardback: 372 pages

Genre: Historical Fiction

Publisher: Tinder Press, Headline Publishing Group 2020.

Source: Tywyn Public Library

First Sentence: A boy is coming down a flight of stairs.

Favourite Quote: “I find,' he says, his voice still muffled, 'that I am constantly wondering where he is. Where he has gone. It is like a wheel ceaselessly turning at the back of my mind. Whatever I am doing, wherever I am, I am thinking: Where is he, where is he? He can't have just vanished. He must be somewhere. All I have to do is find him. I look for him everywhere, in every street, in every crowd, in every audience. That's what I am doing, when I look out at them all: I try to find him, or a version of him.”

Review Quote: A rich imagining of the lives of Shakespeare's family enchants... O'Farrell's remarkable novel bursts with life ― Sunday Telegraph

Literary Awards:  Women's Prize for Fiction (2020), Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Historical Fiction (2020), Waterstones Book of the Year (2020)

My Opinion:  I have been a fan of Maggie O'Farrell's writing for over twenty years! Beautifully descriptive literary prose and cleverly woven storylines that have never disappointed me as a reader.

'Hamnet' the long awaited latest novel was well worth waiting for, it is over seven years since she published her last work of fiction.

A poignant story about William Shakespeare's young family living in Stratford. It feels even more heart rendering to read this novel at the moment as it is also set in the time of pandemic! 

I particularly enjoyed O'Farrell's clever description of how the plague reached English soil via a flea. A great ploy.

The narrative feels realistic, even if it is fiction based on fact and is an emotive portrayal of family life of the times. Alternating between Agnes's youth, courtship by Shakespeare and 1596, when tragedy strikes and continuing through to the end of he century when Hamlet was first performed.

This is definitely a novel to be recommended to all lovers of historical fiction based on a real story. Plus of course fans of Maggie O'Farrell as in my opinion it is a great five star read.

Precis Courtesy of Goodreads:

Drawing on Maggie O'Farrell's long-term fascination with the little-known story behind Shakespeare's most enigmatic play, HAMNET is a luminous portrait of a marriage, at its heart the loss of a beloved child.

Warwickshire in the 1580s. Agnes is a woman as feared as she is sought after for her unusual gifts. She settles with her husband in Henley street, Stratford, and has three children: a daughter, Susanna, and then twins, Hamnet and Judith. The boy, Hamnet, dies in 1596, aged eleven. Four years or so later, the husband writes a play called Hamlet.

Award-winning author Maggie O'Farrell's new novel breathes full-blooded life into the story of a loss usually consigned to literary footnotes, and provides an unforgettable vindication of Agnes, a woman intriguingly absent from history.

Author Profile

Maggie O'Farrell (born 1972, Coleraine Northern Ireland) is the author of the Sunday Times no. 1 bestselling memoir I AM, I AM, I AM, and eight novels: AFTER YOU'D GONE, MY LOVER'S LOVER, THE DISTANCE BETWEEN US, which won a Somerset Maugham Award, THE VANISHING ACT OF ESME LENNOX, THE HAND THAT FIRST HELD MINE, which won the 2010 Costa Novel Award, INSTRUCTIONS FOR A HEATWAVE, which was shortlisted for the 2013 Costa Novel Award, THIS MUST BE THE PLACE, which was shortlisted for the 2016 Costa Novel Award, and HAMNET. She lives in Edinburgh.

Photograph and Biographical Information courtesy of the following sites.

Goodreads - Author Profile   Maggie O'Farrell - Facebook  Amazon Author Profile

Official Author Website

Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O'Farrell.

Hardback: 338 pages
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Publisher: Headline Tinder Press 2013
Source: Tywyn Public Library
First Sentences:The heat, the heat. It wakes Gretta just after dawn, propelling her from the bed down the stairs. 
Review Quote:'Here is an author whose depth and insight hover just below the surface of an apparently effortless lightness...There is a deliciousness to this novel, a warmth and readability that render it unputdownable and will surely make it a hit. She's done it again' Joanne Briscoe, Guardian
My Opinion:  Brilliant personal insight of a family in crisis.



I was already looking forward to reading 'Instructions for a Heatwave', as I closed the pages to 'The Hand That First Held Mine' so seeing it on the returns trolley on a recent visit to the local library gave me the opportunity to read it straight away. It was with some trepidation though that I started reading as her writing had a lot to live up to after her last novel. No worries, as this proved to be a brilliant personal insight of a family in crisis, written by a talented lady who seems to be going from strength to strength.

An evocative setting, especially for those of us that lived through it. With her wonderful descriptive prose Maggie O'Farrell brings the heatwave of the summer of 1976 vividly alive on the printed page. The novel centres on one Irish family in London that summer that find themselves with a strange crisis on their hands when one member of the family goes out to buy a paper but never returns! When Gretta realises that her husband Robert is not coming home she expects the family to rally round and help her solve the mystery. The family reunion is not an easy one as the siblings Michael, Monica and Aiofe all have secrets, as does their mother. It is not just the stifling heat that makes them uncomfortable with each other! Set over just four days during that incredible summer we get to know the 'Riordan's' family history as they face this situation together.

Now established as a favourite author of mine I highly recommend this latest novel to those that enjoy well written contemporary fiction. It will have added interest to those of you that remember the summer of 1976.



Maggie O'Farrell talks about 'Instructions for a Heatwave'.

Author Profile



Maggie O’Farrell was born in Coleraine, Northern Ireland in 1972, and grew up in Wales and Scotland. She now lives in Edinburgh with her family. An author of contemporary fiction, who features in Waterstones' 25 Authors for the Future. To date she has had six novels published and it is possible to identify several common themes in them.  The relationship between sisters is one, another is loss and the psychological impact of those losses on the lives of her characters. 

The biographical information photo and video used in this post are with thanks to the following websites, where you can also find more information about the author and her writing.
 

 Maggie O'Farrell - Official WebsiteGoodreads Profile - Maggie O'FarrellMaggie O'Farrell - Facebook Page
Maggie O'Farrell - Talks about Instructions for a Heatwave - YouTube

The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O'Farrell

Paperback: 374 pages
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Publisher: Headline 2010
Source: British Red Cross Charity Shop, Tywyn.
First Sentences:Listen. The trees in this story are stirring, trembling, readjusting themselves. A breeze is coming in gusts off the sea and it is almost as if the trees know, in their restlessness, in their head-tossing impatience, that something is about to happen. 
Review Quote:'Genuinely unputdownable...evidence of her place as one of Britain's most engaging contemporary novelists' ( Literary Review )
Award: Winner of the 2010 Costa Novel Award.
My Opinion:  Met and exceeded my expectations.                                                                                                                                                                                          


Every time I finish the latest Maggie O'Farrell, I find I have enjoyed it even more than the previous novel and this was no exception. Even from the very first sentences she is writing such enjoyable and descriptive prose  which continues throughout the novel making it a delightful read. Back in 2009 when I wrote a review for The Distance Between Us I mentioned that for me her novels are easy reading but nothing spectacular. Actually since then I have found that her writing has grown on me, I am certainly enjoying her novels more every time, as shown in my review of The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox in 2011. An author whose writing style seems to have just kept getting better.  This one certainly met and exceeded my expectations and I am already looking forward to reading her latest novel, 'Instructions for a Heatwave'.

A dual time period narrative with two exceptionally strong female protagonists which is cleverly woven together to give us an intense storyline that flows seamlessly from fifties London to modern day London. As the novel progresses you will find yourself drawn deeper into the lives of these two women and wonder how the stories are eventually going to connect as we already know they will from reading the books blurb. Lexie Sinclair the passionate and clever young women that escapes rural Devon for the Bohemian scene of Soho in the fifties is wonderfully portrayed. Fifty years later in contemporary London you meet Elina, struggling with a change of life style thanks to the arrival of a baby. Love and life, what complications they cause us.

Highly recommended to anyone that appreciates well written prose and cleverly woven story.


The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O'Farrell

Author Profile



Maggie O’Farrell was born in Coleraine, Northern Ireland in 1972, and grew up in Wales and Scotland. She now lives in Edinburgh with her family. An author of contemporary fiction, who features in Waterstones' 25 Authors for the Future. To date she has had six novels published and it is possible to identify several common themes in them.  The relationship between sisters is one, another is loss and the psychological impact of those losses on the lives of her characters. 

The biographical information and photo used in this post are with thanks to the following websites, where you can also find more information about the author and her writing.
 

 Maggie O'Farrell - Official WebsiteGoodreads Profile - Maggie O'FarrellMaggie O'Farrell - Facebook Page
YouTube Video - The Hand That First Held Mine