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The Splendour
The Splendour
Oct 21, 2024 6:55 AM

Author:Judith Saxton

The Splendour

Book three in the stunning Neyler family saga.

It is 1931, and once again Europe is heading towards disaster. Life must go on however, and a new generation of the Neyler family are making their way in this turbulent world.

Louis Rose, the self-confessed black sheep of the family, returns to England for his father's funeral and is greeted with more bad news: he has lost his mistress to his young nephew. Louis' son Simon, meanwhile, has matured and is embarking on his first love affair. The family hope he’ll have more luck in love that his father.

Valentine Neyler, Simon's cousin, visits Berlin for the Olympics, but finds herself experiencing first-hand the prejudice which is gripping Germany. Before she knows it she is caught up in the tragedy of a Jewish family struggling to escape the Nazi horror.

Dramas, joys and sorrows intertwine and unfold in this inspiring and moving saga, set against the poignant background of a world hurtling towards war, from the Sunday Times bestselling author Katie Flynn.

Reviews

[Jenny Holmes] creates wonderfully human and flawed characters . . . A thrilling, surprising and bittersweet tale . . . Fans of Call the Midwife will particularly enjoy it

—— On: Yorkshire magazine

Praise for Jenny Holmes

—— :

Vibrant and heart-warming, Jenny Holmes makes Chapel Street come alive.

—— Sunday Express on The Shop Girls of Chapel Street

Gritty and uplifting, it's a tale of triumph over adversity

—— Choice on The Mill Girls of Albion Lane

The story is full of drama, love, heartbreak, friendship and in some parts comedy . . . It's full of twists and turns and is a real page turner

—— Laurahbookblog

A riveting read is just what this is in more ways than one.

—— The Northern Echo

A real insight into how it was for these women in a Sunderland major ship building yard ... The foundation book of a series. Which I shall be reading as each one is written. Loved it.

—— 5* Real Reader Review

The Waterway Girls gives an insightful glimpse into the invaluable aid women provided for their country

—— Culture Fly


Another great story from this author. She can certainly immerse you in her way of telling a story

—— Mojo Mums

In Toibin's careful hands, the story of Clytemnestra, who avenges her daughter after her husband Agamemnon sacrifices her to secure safe passage from Troy, is told with such a vivid grasp of the emotional pulse that even those who know the story well will be transfixed.

—— Claire Allfree , Daily Mail

What is truly miraculous, though, is how Tóibín has made us sympathize with people who do terrible, unthinkable things

—— Boston Globe

A dramatic, intimate chronicle of a family implosion set in unsettling times

—— Publishers' Weekly

If there is a more brilliant writer than Tóibín working today, I don't know who that would be

—— Karen Joy Fowler

This is a novel about the way the members of a family keep secrets from one another, tell lies and make mistakes.. .

—— Literary Review

Tóibín's retelling is governed by compassion and responsibility, and focuses on the horrors that led Clytemnestra to her terrible vengeance. Her sympathetic first-person narrative makes even murder, for a moment, seem reasonable (...) Tóibín's prose is precise and unadorned, the novel's moments of violence told with brutal simplicity. But its greatest achievement is as a page-turner. In a tale that has ended the same way for thousands of years, Tóibín makes us hope for a different outcome

—— The Economist

[An] intense, thought-provoking and original novel . . . Toibin's book transforms this ancient story into a lyrical, melancholy meditation on closeted desire, which implicitly comments on the aftermath of the Irish Troubles'

—— Emily Wilson , TLS

Graphic, vicious, beautiful retelling of ancient myths.... Ultimately the book is a stark, timeless and brilliantly rendered tale of power in a world, as ever, riven by conflict.

—— 'I' Newspaper

In a novel describing one of the Western world's oldest legends, in which the gods are conspicuous by their absence, Tóibín achieves a paradoxical richness of characterisation and a humanisation of the mythological, marking House Of Names as the superbly realised work of an author at the top of his game.

—— Daily Express

A spellbinding adaptation of the Clytemnestra myth, House of Names considers the Mycenaen queen in all her guises: grieving mother, seductress, ruthless leader - and victim of the ultimate betrayal.

—— Vogue

A haunting story, largely because Tóibín tells it in spare, resonant prose...

—— Lucy Hughes-Hallett , New Statesman

A Greek House of Cards... Just like Heaney at the end of his Mycenae lookout, Toibin's novel augurs an era of renewal that comes directly from the cessation of hostilities.

—— Fiona Macintosh , Irish Times

The book's mastery of pacing and tone affirm the writer as one of our finest at work today.

—— John Boland , Irish Independent

A daring, and triumphant return, to the Oresteia... bleakly beautiful twilight of the Gods.

—— Boyd Tonkin , The Arts Desk

It couldn't have been done better

—— Scotsman

A visceral reworking of Oresteia

—— Observer

The escalation of violence and desire for revenge has deliberate echoes of the Irish Troubles

—— Observer Books of the Year
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