book details

Book Review: Looking For Jamie by Angela Rigley

categories: Book, Victorian England, Young Boy, Romance, Historical Fiction

Angela Rigley

about this book: My novel is set in Victorian England. A boy is found alone and bedraggled, having lost his memory, and is taken in by the family of The Grange who come to love him. Six months later, Tillie is released from prison for stealing a loaf. She needs to find her child. Is he still alive?

The film 'Goodnight, Mr Tom' was the inspiration for the book, which is loved by readers of every age, men as well as women.

I began to write the story about fifteen years ago, in an old exercise book. I would pick it up and, sometimes, after racking my brain for inspiration, put it away again. Then, five years ago, I retired from work and joined the Eastwood Writers' Group. With their encouragement and advice, I finished it and sent it off to Bluewood Publishing who, joy of joys, agreed to publish it, firstly as an ebook, then, in February 2010, the paperback arrived. The exhilaration of actually seeing it in print cannot be described, as I am sure, most first-time authors would agree.

A lot of research is required. I do most of it on the Internet, but sometimes visit the library and look through reference books. Fashion of the day, words used, more importantly, words not in use in that era, customs and all sorts of things need checking for authenticity.

I hope my readers enjoy the experience of having Jamie, Tillie, David and all the other characters as their friends for a while. They will not have to lose these friends as the sequel will soon be out, and there is also a third book soon to be edited. Who knows? There may be a fourth and even a fifth, depending on how generous my muse is.

Reviews:

• 'The characters are believable and jumped out of the page, the dialogue is spot on and I feel like I was there listening to everything as it happened.'

• 'You have tremendous talent at writing imagery and developing characters. I loved all your characters.'

• 'found this book to be endearing and hard to put down. It pulls you in to the Victorian era like you could be there yourself. Each chapter ends on a tantalising part of the story which makes you want to keep reading.'