Liz Byrski

I enjoyed this, my second by Liz Byrski. My own life had many unavoidable distractions while I tried to read the first half and I very nearly didn’t continue. So to be far, because it could have been my lack of attention causing the problem, I decided to read to the end. Managing to read the second half straight through, I finally engaged with these four women. The narrative reminded me a little of Mary Moody’s writing - women, over fifty, who feel they have to leave home to find themselves. What I found a little unrealistic was that all four left at pretty much the same time on their trip of self discovery! I doubt this would happen in real life but maybe I’m wrong and anyway, I didn’t write the story. It was interesting to see what happened to each of the women and what they got out of their time away.… (more)

You will have realised from the above descriptor that this is a departure from my usual crime fiction,

I did not realise until I had nearly finished the book that this is a memoir, written hot on the heels of the author's reunion with Karl Heinz 37 years after they first met. By this time they had both been in other marriages, and the book ends just after their reunion.

Plenty of discussion points in the book. Was their original separation on the grounds that Liz was too young for marriage a valid one? What chance did their reunion have after they had spent so long apart, and had so many experiences that were not shared?… (more)