Rachel Billington
Autor(a) de Emma & Knightley: Perfect Happiness in Highbury: A Sequel to Jane Austen's Emma
About the Author
Lady Rachel Billington is the daughter of the late Earl and Countess of Longford. She is the author of fifteen novels and eight children's books Gered Mankowitz is the son of the celebrated author and playwright Wolf Mankowitz, and is a world renowned photographer
Obras por Rachel Billington
Emma & Knightley: Perfect Happiness in Highbury: A Sequel to Jane Austen's Emma (1996) 94 exemplares
lesioni volontarie 1 exemplar
Associated Works
Etiquetado
Conhecimento Comum
- Nome legal
- Billington, Lady Rachel
- Data de nascimento
- 1942-05-11
- Sexo
- female
- Nacionalidade
- UK
- Local de nascimento
- Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, UK
- Locais de residência
- London, England, UK
New York, New York, USA
Dorset, England, UK - Educação
- University of London (BA - English Literature)
- Ocupações
- novelist
journalist
screenwriter
children's book author - Relações
- Fraser, Antonia (sister)
Pakenham, Thomas Francis Dermot, 8th Earl of Longford (brother)
Longford, Elizabeth (mother)
Kazantzis, Judith (sister)
Pakenham, Frank, 7th Earl of Longford (father)
Pinter, Harold (brother-in-law) (mostrar todos 11)
Pakenham, Valerie (sister-in-law)
Powell, Lady Violet (aunt)
Billington, Kevin (husband)
Clive, Mary (aunt)
Lamb, Lady Pansy (aunt) - Organizações
- English PEN (former President)
- Prémios e menções honrosas
- Order of the British Empire (Officer, 2012)
Fatal error: Call to undefined function isLitsy() in /var/www/html/inc_magicDB.php on line 425- Rachel Billington was born Lady Rachel Pakenham into a well-known Anglo-Irish family. Her parents, both writers, were the the 7th Earl and Countess of Longford: Frank Pakenham, Labour minister and prisoner activist, and Elizabeth Longford, biographer and historian. Many other members of her family are also eminent writers, including her sisters Antonia Fraser and Judith Kazantzis, and her brother Thomas Pakenham, the present Earl. She married Kevin Billington, a film, theater and television director with whom she has four children. Rachel Billington's first novel was All Things Nice (1969). Since then, she has published 19 other novels for adults and 7 children's books. She has also worked as a journalist and written nonfiction, religious books, television plays and screenplays. She is a former president of English PEN, and contributes to Inside Time, the national newspaper for prisoners. She received the OBE in 2012 for her services to literature.
Membros
Críticas
A story of 2 people who fell in love and who were separated by 25years in age and after a mysterious tragedy which is revealed at the end 14 years in time.
The story criss crosses over the past and present and you spend a lot of the book wondering what the event was that wrecked both their lives.
By the time you do find out, you are caught up in their story and mainly interested in how it ends for them, to the point that it is almost just an add on piece of info.
Rachel keeps tight control of her story and I felt that the ending was expertly handled, whereas in some books you can feel the author galloping towards the end.
I hit a wall about halfway and debated whether to continue, but am glad I did.… (mais)
The story criss crosses over the past and present and you spend a lot of the book wondering what the event was that wrecked both their lives.
By the time you do find out, you are caught up in their story and mainly interested in how it ends for them, to the point that it is almost just an add on piece of info.
Rachel keeps tight control of her story and I felt that the ending was expertly handled, whereas in some books you can feel the author galloping towards the end.
I hit a wall about halfway and debated whether to continue, but am glad I did.… (mais)
Esta crítica foi escrita no âmbito dos Primeiros Críticos do LibraryThing.The story of a feisty girl, and how she deals with the pain of her dad's downfall, has much to say about the harsh realities faced by the unlucky children of prisoners. I think we forget about the children and how they deal with one of the parents in jail. A must read! I was given this book thru LibraryThing.com
Esta crítica foi escrita no âmbito dos Primeiros Críticos do LibraryThing.I have to say I didn't finish this book. I found it very hard to get into. I'm going to pass it on and see if it was just me.
Listas
Austenland (1)
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Associated Authors
Estatísticas
- Obras
- 42
- Also by
- 3
- Membros
- 584
- Popularidade
- #42,938
- Avaliação
- 3.2
- Críticas
- 14
- ISBN
- 152
- Línguas
- 4
Trigger warnings: Imprisonment of a father
Score: Four points out of ten.
I own this book.
This novel was part of a library giveaway since it was too old, few people read it, or both. Initially, it looked promising, so I got it and left it until I ran out of reading material. That is until I checked the ratings and reviews, and according to them, it looked like I would be disappointed. I picked it up and read it, and that sentiment happened. It could've been much better, but it underwhelmed me instead. It's not clear whether the author's other fictional works are better than Poppy's Hero. Maybe?
It starts with the first character I see, Poppy (which explains the title), whose last name I forgot living as a child of a Polish immigrant in England. Here's the central point: Poppy's father is in prison. Why? I don't know; the book never explained it to me. The tension builds as Poppy, alongside another character, Angel, devise a plan to break Poppy's father out of prison, but only a few pages in, it was unsuccessful. Here's where the flaws surface: like other works of fiction, the characters aren't relatable nor can I connect to them. I couldn't feel anything for them. The first half is where Poppy's Hero shines, since it has some action involving the prison break, but the second half had nothing much happening. I'm sure I'm not the target audience, so perhaps a younger reader would enjoy this one. Did I mention the cover is dated, and so is the content inside? I should expect that from now with all early 2010s novels.… (mais)