WENDY PERRIAM
If I had to sum up in a sentence this, my 26th book, it's the story of Anthony Beaumont, a man born into a bubble of prosperity and privilege, & believing himself to be not only a success-story but also a virtuous person, who loses everything at a stroke - his job, his house, his wife, his future, his confidence, his reputation - but survives to rethink all his values & reshape his life.
The novel is very much in tune with the zeitgeist in that it deals with prisons and prison reform – now in the News almost daily – and with the equally controversial topic of inequality. Not until his fall from grace does Anthony realize how little he knew about how the other half lives, & how he simply took his good fortune, good genes and cultured upbringing for granted. But his descent from being a Director in one of the leading accountancy firms to working night-shifts as an office-cleaner on less than the minimum wage certainly opens his eyes! And, prior to that, his spell in prison brings him into contact with people he would formerly have dismissed as “scroungers” and even “scum”. Slowly, however, nd through mentoring an illiterate fellow-prisoner, he grows in sympathy and self-knowledge, having realized only now, at the age of 40, that he was forced by his high-powered parents into a life like theirs of high achievement and the pursuit of wealth and status, and had no freedom as a boy to establish his own ideals or work out what he wanted to do in life.
Indeed, the novel examines many different aspects of freedom. How much freedom are we compelled to forfeit in any close relationship, or in marriage, or parenthood? How does working 7/7, and being tied to one’s Smartphone and email 24/7, encroach on our leisure-time or personal space? What are the similarities between prison and a strict boarding-school?
It also examines the nature of love. How much of it is lust, or self-love, in the sense of wanting admiration and cosseting from a partner?
Once released from custody, Anthony does in fact embark on a new relationship – the novel is not all doom and gloom! Indeed, his new girlfriend, Mary, is not only eminently fanciable but seems the epitome of feminine charm, and certainly knows how to indulge a man through her cooking, home-making and dressmaking skills. But what gets in the way is her cats – at first cutesy little kitties, but eventually posing a further threat to both her own and Anthony’s freedom.
To research the novel, the author consulted experts on police procedure, the legal and probation systems, the world of Corporate Finance and the many inspiring schemes for prisoner-rehabilitation. She also interviewed many ex-offenders, including some famous names!
A voyage from silence to self-fulfilment, through passion, perservence - and the power of song...
Veronica Matthews, “dumb” for 55 years, undergoes a life-changing experience by joining a choir. Slowly but determinedly, she finds a voice, forges a new identity, makes new friends, begins working for a professional qualification and even embarks on a passionate love-affair after decades of tepid marital sex.
She missed out not only on singing, due to her single mother’s nomadic lifestyle, but also on education and the musical culture of her day. But now many of the songs she learns prove a revelation and a wake-up call, stressing as they do, energy, exuberance, sensuality and rebellion and thus contradicting all the tenets of her restrictive childhood, including being told, age 4, never to open her mouth in public again, because she was singing out of tune. Silenced and submissive even at that age, she dutifully obeyed. However, her new friends prompt her to question whether duty and obedience should continue to rule her life, notwithstanding her domestic responsibilities.
Perriam herself recently joined a choir, after being similarly “dumb” for decades and found it an exhilarating and enabling experience. This particular choir was one for cancer-sufferers and thus the novel combines two very different but equally topical themes: the increasing popularity of choirs and the ever-growing evidence that singing brings considerable health-benefits, as well as hope, solace, companionship and a sense of achievement even to seriously ill patients. For Veronica personally, the experience transforms her dreary half-life into a far fuller and richer existence, as her once timid croak becomes a cry of triumph.