an imaginative experience

It's been an unbelievable 6 months since I last blogged. That's not because nothing blogworthy has happened. More that so much has happened I haven't had time to stop and blog it. I hope to blog more this year, about all sorts of things. I'm also hoping to read more so it seemed to make sense to start by blogging the first book I read this year...


An Imaginative Experience, by Mary Wesley

I'd never heard of Mary Wesley before and only read this book because mum passed it on after she'd finished it. I think she found it in a charity shop? I'm glad she did.

The story opens with a bizarre scene in which a woman pulls the emergency stop cord on a train, jumps off, helps a sheep stranded in a nearby field and then gets back on the train again. That event, and the reactions of two of the passengers on the train, set up the twisting course of the rest of the book.

Wesley's characters are well constructed. Believable human beings with a normal, day-to-day life into which her surprises and changes are thrown. The novel skips between their lives seamlessly, placing apparently random happenings alongside one another.

It's an easy read with a gripping storyline. A great blend of predictability and unexpected shifts in direction. I'll be looking for more Wesley novels this year. Now where's my library card?